CARPENTER'S 
WORLD TRAVELS 



Familiar Talks About Countries 
and Peoples 



WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND 
THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED 
ON THREE HUNDRED THOU- 
SAND MILES OF TRAVEL 
OVER THE GLOBE 



THE HOLY LAND 

AND SYRIA 



ji f 
i 




CHRISTIANS RULE THE LAND OF CHRIST 
Seven hundred years of Moslem supremacy in the Holy Land ended 
with General Allenby's modest entrance into Jerusalem. Then arose the 
cry, "The day of deliverance is come" 



CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAVELS 



THE HOLY LAND 

AND SYRIA 

BY 

FRANK G. CARPENTER 

litt.dJ f.r.g.s. 




NINETY-SIX PAGES OF 
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS 
AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR 



GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
1922 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 
FRANK G. CARPENTER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
AT 

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY. N. Y 

First Edition 



DEC-1 ?2 

© Cl A692161 

flu a f 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



IN THE publication of this volume on the Holy Land 
and Syria, I wish to thank the Secretary of State for 
letters which have given me the assistance of our 
official representatives in the countries visited. I also 
thank our Secretary of Agriculture and our Secretary of 
Labour for appointing me an Honorary Commissioner of 
their Departments in foreign lands. Their credentials 
have been of the greatest value, making accessible to 
me sources of information seldom opened to the ordi- 
nary traveller. 

I wish to acknowledge also the valuable assistance 
and cooperation rendered by Mr. Dudley Harmon, my 
editor, and Miss Josephine Lehmann in the revision of 
the notes dictated or penned by me on the ground. 

While most of the illustrations are from my own neg- 
atives, there are certain photographs which have been 
supplied by the Near East Relief, the Red Cross, the 
Publishers' Photo Service, and the Zionist Organization 
of America, all of which are protected by copyright. 



vii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Just a Word Before We Start . . i 

II In the Land of Goshen .... 4 

III The City of Jonah 14 

IV By Railway to the Land of Judea . 23 
V From Dan to Beersheba .... 30 

VI Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century 36 

VII Around the Walls of the Holy City 43 

VIII "The Tribes of God Go Thither" . 48 

IX On the Site of Solomon's Temple . 57 

X Jews of Palestine 68 

XI The Evil Eye 78 

XII Easter in Jerusalem 84 

XIII Washing the Feet of the Apostles 95 

XIV A Talk with the Greek Patriarch ioi 
XV Among the Money Changers . . . 1 1 1 

XVI Excavating Old Jericho . . . . 119 

XVII The Dead Sea and the Jordan . . 129 

XVIII Bethlehem 138 

XIX Among the Samaritans 149 

ix 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XX Farming in the Land of Milk and 

Honey 159 

XXI The Colonies and Their Develop- 
ment 169 

XXII Where Our Saviour Spent His Boy- 
hood . . 177 

XXIII On the Sea of Galilee .... 187 

XXIV The Zionist Movement .... 196 

XXV The World's Oldest City . . . . 204 

XXVI Shopping in the Street Called 

Straight . . . . . ... . 214 

XXVII The Veiled Women of Damascus . 223 

XXVIII Baalbek the Wonderful . . . . 232 

XXIX Across the Lebanon Mountains by 

Rail 242 

XXX American Leaven in the Near East 252 

XXXI At the Shrine of Diana of the 

Ephesians 262 

XXXII Armenia, the Suffering .... 271 

XXXIII Palestine and Syria Under New 

Rulers 280 

Seeing the World 287 

Bibliography 289 

Index . 293 



x 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Christians rule the Land of Christ Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Primitive water wheel in the Land of Goshen . . 8 

Through rocky wastes to the top of Mt. Sinai . . 9 

Egyptians toiling where the Israelites made bricks . 16 

We go ashore in small boats at J aria .... 17 

House of Simon the Tanner 17 

The men of Palestine are very strong .... 20 

Cactus hedges are used instead of fences ... 21 

The crude plough of Palestine 28 

The children of the Holy Land 28 

A sheeted Balaam and his ass 29 

Fuel is scarce in the land of no woods . . . . 32 

The Pool of Hezekiah 33 

Airplane view of Jerusalem 36 

The Kaiser's breach in the Wall of Jerusalem . . 37 

The roofs of Jerusalem 44 

View of the Mt. of Olives 44 

Jerusalem seen from a bell tower 45 

Sheep and goats outside the walls 48 

Lepers beg at the Gates' of Jerusalem .... 49 

The roads to Jaffa and Bethlehem 49 

Water carriers old and new 52 

"Going up to Jerusalem" 53 

A donkey ambulance for pilgrims on the march . 5 3 

Pilgrims bathing in the River Jordan .... 60 

Russian women walk from shrine to shrine ... 61 

xi 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Mosque of Omar 


FACING PAGE 
. 6 4 


The Jews' wailing place 


. 65 


A maid of Jerusalem 


,,. 68 


Snow in the streets of Jerusalem 


69 


Three learned Jews of the Holy City 


. 76 




• 77 


Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 


. 80 


Keeping off the evil spirits 


81 


Grandfather and grandson — both beggars . 


. 84 


Pilgrims praying in the Via Dolorosa . 


. 85 


Waiting for the Holy Fire 


. 92 


Gathering the olive crop 


• 93 


The Church of the Lord's Prayer . . • . 


96 


Washing the feet of the twelve bishops . 


• 97 


A tailor shop in Jerusalem 


100 


The church of the best religious paintings . 


IOI 


Commercializing the holiness of the Holy City . 


. 108 


Moslem priest reading the Koran .... 


. 108 




. 109 


Bethlehem maids 


1 12 




. 113 


A Turkish restaurant in Jerusalem .... 


1 16 




. 116 




• ii7 






At the Tomb of Lazarus 


. 125 


The Healing Stone on the way to Jordan 


. 125 




128 








. 132 




. 132 




• 133 



xii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Christmas Day services in Bethlehem . . . . 140 

Young women and their dowries -. 141 

At Jacob's Well 144 

The Sacred Scroll of the Samaritans 145 

The Feast of the Passover on Mt. Gerizim . . . 148 

Pulling tares from the wheat 149 

The camel blubbers as his hair is clipped . . . 149 

Why Palestinians use camels for ploughing . . . 156 

Modern farm machinery in the Jewish colony . . 156 

The sheep that was lost is found 157 

Colonists terrace the hillsides with stone walls . . 160 

Picking almonds 161 

An avenue of cypresses and palms 164 

A carpenter shop in Nazareth 165 

Nazareth lies in a little amphitheatre . . . . 172 

The boys of Nazareth are friendly 172 

Mr. Carpenter and the Water Pot of Cana . . . 173 

We cross the Sea of Galilee 176 

The arched Gate of Tiberias 177 

Fish from the Sea of Galilee 180 

W-Capernaum — the city of prophecy fulfilled . . . 180 

The colonists do much of their own work . . . 181 

Making the bread of Bible times 188 

A colonist's home near Lake Merom 189 

A prayer niche in the Grand Mosque . . . . 192 

Where Fatima lies buried in Damascus . . . . 193 

A place of trees with a river flowing between . . 196 

The Wall of St. Paul in Damascus 196 

Shopping in the Street called Straight .... 197 

The men come together in the horse market . . 204 

"O Allah, send customers/' cry the bread-sellers . 204 

Spinning wool into thread for a rug 205 

xiii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin . . 208 

At the end of the Bookseller's Bazaar .... 209 

The street dress of the women of Damascus . . 224 

Mr. Carpenter and the Columns at Baalbek . . 225 

The portal of the Temple of Bacchus .... 228 

The mighty columns of the Temple of the Sun . . 229 

The nomad Bedouins live in brown tents . . . 236 

A lonely grove of Lebanon cedars 237 

Only a few of the great trees are left .... 240 

Tree-lined avenues lead out of Beirut 24 1 

The American University at Beirut 244 

Stones carried up on the backs of camels . . . 244 

A view of Beirut 245 

The ruins of the City of Diana 252 

Storks build their nests in the palaces of Ephesus . 252 

Giving the silkworms their breakfast . . . . 253 

Armenian children make themselves useful . . . 256 

Getting the Armenians back to the land . . . 257 

A cradle of Armenia 260 

American flour sacks serve a double purpose . . 260 

The water power of the Jordan will be developed . 261 

The first steel bridge across the Jordan .... 268 

Jerusalem now has a speed law 269 

MAPS 

The Holy Land 24 

The Holy Land and Syria 40 



xiv 



THE HOLY LAND 

AND SYRIA 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



CHAPTER I 

JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START 

BY THE World War the Moslem was forced to the 
rear and Palestine has become more and more 
i the possession of Christian and Jew. General 
Allenby and his troops have taken the part of 
Richard the Lion-hearted and the Crusaders, and 
Jerusalem is at last out of the hands of the fol- 
lowers of the Prophet Mohammed. Among the in- 
novations that followed are the removal of the tax 
gatherers who robbed the poor and the rich in the 
name of the Sultan, the safeguarding of the roads from 
the wandering Bedouins, and the reclaiming of the soil, so 
that the country bids fair to become once more the land 
of milk and honey that it was when it gladdened the 
tired eyes of the Israelites after their long wanderings in 
the desert of Sinai. Railways now cross the desert, con- 
necting Palestine with Egypt and Turkey, and one may 
go on the cars from Cairo to Jerusalem and from Paris, 
via Constantinople and Damascus, to Galilee. 

At the same time the Holy Land of the Bible is the 
Holy Land of to-day. It has the same skies as those un- 
der which the Wise Men followed the Star to the birth- 
place of Jesus. It has the same flowers as those trodden 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

by Joseph and Mary, and the water in Jacob's Well is 
still sweet, notwithstanding it is now compared with that 
of the Nile which flows in pipes over the desert almost 
to the Pool of Siloam. The sheep still pasture on the 
hills as they did in the days of our Saviour, and boys and 
girls may be seen picking the tares from the wheat. Asses 
like Balaam's still carry their masters over the road, 
although their brays are now and then drowned in the 
horns of the automobiles; and the strange people one con- 
stantly meets personify Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
Rachel and Ruth, and the other Bible characters who 
lived and loved in the days of the Scriptures. 

All these belong to the Palestine perennial, and to that 
Palestine belong the talks of this book. They are based 
on the notes dictated to my stenographer or written by 
me in the midst of the scenes they describe. I give them 
as they came hot from the pen, changing only a line here 
and there to accord with the changing conditions. 

We start in the Land of Goshen which Joseph gave to 
his father and brothers after he was sold to the Ishmael- 
ites and carried down into Egypt, and enter Palestine at 
Jaffa, the city of Jonah and Simon the Tanner. We cross 
the plains of Sharon by rail, and travel back and forth 
over the Holy Land from Beersheba to Dan. Jerusalem 
and Bethlehem, Jericho and the Jordan, Shechem and 
Nazareth are among the places where we linger longest, 
and it is on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee from 
Capernaum that we take the train for Damascus. In that 
city we go to the wall over which Saint Paul was let 
down in a basket, shop in the Street called Straight, and 
then, crossing the Abana, one of the rivers that Naaman 
the Leper would have preferred to the Jordan, ascend the 

2 



JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START 

mountains of Lebanon to the ruins of Baalbek. We 
next climb down to the Mediterranean Sea at Beirut and 
sail north to Smyrna to pay our respects to the ruined 
shrine of the Goddess Diana on the site of old Ephesus. 
After a peep at Asia Minor we take a ship for home. 
Throughout the journey, the old is ever tramping on the 
heels of the new, and the Palestine of the future is seen 
through the veil of the Palestine of the past. 



3 



CHAPTER II 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 

COME with me this bright Sunday morning for 
a look at the old Land of Goshen, where the 
Israelites settled when they first came into 
Egypt. I am writing this at Zagazig not far 
from the road down which Joseph was carried by the 
caravan of Ishmaelites, or Bedouins, who had bought 
him of his brothers and were on their way to sell him to 
Potiphar. It was over that same road that the brothers 
of Joseph came to buy corn in the seven years of famine. 
It was probably near Zagazig that Joseph met them and 
had the cup hidden in Benjamin's sack, and from Zag- 
azig he came out in his chariot to meet his old father 
Jacob when by his advice the patriarch came into 
Egypt to live. Through him Goshen became a land of 
the Israelites, where they remained and prospered until 
he died, and those "who knew not Joseph" reigned in 
his stead. 

The Land of Goshen is to-day one of the finest parts 
of the Nile Valley. My whole way from Cairo to Zag- 
azig was through rich crops of cotton, sugar cane, and 
clover. There was green everywhere, and I could ride 
from here twenty miles more to the eastward before 
reaching the desert. The railroad from Cairo to the 
Suez Canal goes directly through Goshen. It strikes 
the canal at Ismailia and then branches off north and 

4 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 



south, following the canal to Suez on the Red Sea, and to 
Port Said on the Mediterranean. The first section is 
over the road which led from Arabia to Memphis and 
Heliopolis, cities long since replaced by Cairo, the me- 
tropolis of Egypt. Zagazig, where I am stopping, is 
one of the chief cities in the Delta. It is on the fresh- 
water canal and the big irrigation ditch which leads to 
the Nile. It is famous as a cotton port, and to-day 
camels are coming into the town with bales on their backs, 
and long trainloads are starting out for Alexandria and 
Port Said, whence the cotton will be shipped off to 
Europe and America. 

The cotton scenes are features of the landscape un- 
known in the days of Joseph and Jacob. At that time 
the only clothes made in Egypt were of flax or wool. 
Nobody knew of the cotton plant, and it was not until 
the Middle Ages that Europe learned anything about it. 
The first knowledge of it was brought by the traveller, 
Sir John Mandeville, who said that the East Indians had 
a shrub or bush, half vegetable and half animal. It was 
called the vegetable lamb of Tartary. According to Sir 
John, it was a plant which blossomed out at the top in 
a living sheep that bent down and ate the grass growing 
luxuriantly about it. The sheep had a thick coat of wool, 
and from this came the cotton of India. Sir John wrote 
that this plant beast had flesh, bones, and blood, and 
that he had not only seen but eaten it. He closed with 
the statement that all thought it wonderful but that 
"God is marveyllous in his werkes." 

This was about 1350 a.d., and many years before the 
real nature of cotton became known in Egypt and cot- 
ton seeds were planted. Now the crop is grown every- 

5 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

where in Goshen, and thrives on almost every spot where 
the feet of the Israelites trod. It covers the Delta and large 
plantations have been set out even in old Nubia and the 
Sudan. Cotton has supplanted grain as a money- 
making crop and is worth far more than the grain that 
Joseph had cornered when the years of famine began. 

This Land of Goshen is a fine stock country. Camels, 
buffaloes, and donkeys are staked out in the fields, and 
flocks of sheep and goats feed there, watched by shep- 
herds. There are also droves of camels grazing or lying 
on the ground, chewing their cuds. All have their herds- 
men. There are no fences in Egypt ; the fields are bounded 
by imaginary lines. Sometimes the limits are marked by 
water ditches, or little embankments made for irrigation. 

It was as stock raisers that the Israelites came into 
Egypt. Perhaps it was because they were a pastoral 
people that Joseph had Pharaoh give them this Land of 
Goshen, the eastern part of which is fringed by the 
desert, with patches of scanty vegetation where the stock 
could graze. The Bible says that Joseph advised his 
brethren to say to Pharaoh, "Thy servants' trade hath 
been about cattle, from our youth even until now, both 
we and also our fathers"; for said he, "Every shepherd 
is an abomination unto the Egyptians.'' 

To-day the land is well cultivated. Most of the fields 
are kept like gardens, and I see half-naked men bending 
over and digging the soil with great mattocks. Here 
the farmers are ploughing, using the same one-handled 
plough of the days of the Scriptures. Some of them have 
donkeys and buffaloes hitched together, while now and 
then one sees a plough dragged along by a cow and a camel. 
There is much artificial irrigation. Sometimes the water 

6 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 



is lifted from level to level by men with buckets and 
baskets to which ropes are slung. In other places it is 
raised by the sakieh, a rude wheel turned by the cogs 
of another wheel set at right angles to it. Clay jars are 
fastened on this perpendicular wheel, and as this moves 
through the water, the jars fill and empty themselves 
into the troughs which lead to the little canals. The 
motive power of the sakieh is a blindfolded camel, bul- 
lock, or donkey, the animal going around like a horse in 
an old-fashioned bark mill. Many of the fields are now 
under water and the silvery streams shine out through 
the emerald green of the crops. 

When the Israelites first came to Goshen they prob- 
ably lived in tents such as the Bedouins use to-day. 
These are made of sheep's wool or goat's hair rudely 
woven by hand. They are held up by ropes and poles 
and are so low that the people must crawl into them. 
We know that Abraham lived in a tent, and it is likely 
that this was the case with Isaac and Jacob. 

After coming to Goshen the Israelites probably copied 
the houses of the Egyptians, building villages of mud 
huts not unlike those I now see. These homes are rude 
to an extreme. Many of them are less than twenty feet 
square; they have flat roofs and are often so low that I 
can see over them as I ride by on a camel. They have 
no gardens or lawns. Facing the street, they are hud- 
dled together without regard to beauty or comfort. 

The roofs form the woodyards of the people below. 
The only fuel they have is cornstalks, straw, or the 
bushes from which the cotton has been picked. This 
stuff is tied up in bundles and laid away on the roofs 
until used. 



7 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



There are but few trees to be seen. Now and then an 
acacia grows along the roadway, and here and there are 
clumps of date palms. There are occasional fruit gar- 
dens, and I have seen many green orchards loaded with 
oranges. 

The roads are usually high above the rest of the coun- 
try. They run along the canals, and consist of the dirt 
banked up to hold back the waters. The side roads are 
chiefly camel paths or foot paths, and one sees everywhere 
the traffic moving along through the fields. Even on the 
main roads there are few wagons. Most of the freight 
is carried on donkeys and camels, which are the common 
riding animals as well. Long-legged Egyptians in tur- 
bans and gowns sit on the rumps of little donkeys, their 
feet almost dragging; and fierce-looking Bedouins, their 
headdresses tied on with ropes, bob up and down as they 
ride on their camels, their heads bowing at every step of 
the beasts. There are camels loaded with alfalfa, the 
grass so covering them that they look like haystacks on 
legs. There are donkeys laden with boxes and bags, and 
mules and bullocks carrying freight of one kind or another. 
Out in the fields one now and then sees a buffalo with a 
a half-naked boy perched on it, and at nightfall the paths 
are lined with men coming from the fields riding these 
ungainly beasts and balancing their one-handled ploughs 
in front of them. 

It was in Goshen that the Israelites worked after they 
were enslaved by the Egyptians. Here they built for 
Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Rameses, 
referred to in Exodus, from which they were sent out to 
build other cities and towns in various parts of the 
Nile Valley. 

8 



It was through rocky wastes such as this that Moses climbed to the 
top of Mount Sinai and there received the Ten Commandments, and 
there the Lord spoke with Moses "face to face, as a man speaketh unto 
his friend" 



The Land of Goshen still gets much of its water by the primitive wheel 
turned by a blindfolded and resentful camel. This is the land which fed 
Jacob and his family through the years of famine in Canaan 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 

The archaeologists now excavating in Egypt tell me that 
they frequently find bricks which were undoubtedly made 
by them, and assert that the sun-dried bricks of to-day 
are practically the same as those the children of Israel 
moulded under the lash of their taskmasters. 

This is true of the ruins of Bubastis, or the city of the 
worship of the cat. The remains of this town, which was 
situated within a stone's throw of the Zagazig of to-day, 
are still to be seen. Its many buildings of mud brick 
have crumbled almost to dust, but here and there the walls 
are plainly visible. There are several hundred acres of 
such ruins and I spent an hour or so to-day driving 
through them. 

Bubastis dates back to the times when the Pyramids 
were young. It is supposed to have been built by the 
Israelites, and was a great city until it was captured by 
the Persians about 352 b. c. It was noted for its tem- 
ples devoted to the cat-headed goddess. This lady had 
the form of a lioness with the head of a cat and held in 
one hand a lotus leaf as a sceptre. Herodotus tells of 
her and of this city, saying that the temples were gor- 
geous and that the stone road leading to them was one 
thousand eight hundred feet long. He says that as 
many as seven hundred thousand worshippers came to 
the annual festivities. He relates that many of the 
worshippers were women who often danced and acted "in 
an unseemly manner. " 

Driving out to the Bubastis, I found there a brickyard 
in full swing. It was situated right on the edge of the 
ruins, and the fellaheen of to-day were moulding the clay 
used by the Israelites of the past into building material 
for the present. As I looked at them my mind went 

9 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

back to the days of the Pharaohs when Moses saw his 
people toiling under the lash. These men and women I 
watched were working under taskmasters or overseers. 
Their half-clad bodies were burnt black by the tropical 
sun and they looked not unlike slaves. Here they were 
grinding the mud, there they were moulding it into bricks, 
while farther over they were piling up those which had 
been dried in the sun. The bricks were carried by young 
girls, bossed by a burly negro with a stick in his hand. 
At his direction the girls took the bricks on their heads 
and carried them off on the trot. By bribing the negro 
overseer I got a photograph of this scene, and I doubt 
not my picture gives a fair idea of what went on in those 
long-ago days, when Pharaoh drove the Israelites to 
similar work. 

Down through Goshen came Joseph and Mary fleeing 
with the infant Saviour from the wrath of Herod, the 
baby killer. This was then on the main highway from 
Palestine into Egypt, and there is no doubt that they 
stopped at Bubastis as they went on to Heliopolis. Not 
far from the obelisk of Heliopolis there is a tree under 
which Mary and Joseph and the young Jesus are said to 
have rested. It is about five miles from Cairo and guide 
books speak of it as one of the chief sights of Egypt. I 
doubt the reliability of their statements. The tree may 
be the descendant of one which stood there in the time 
of Christ. It is an old sycamore gnarled with many 
years and scarred with the names of tourists. It is on one 
of the estates of the Khedive, and may be seen through 
the bars of a fence which has been built around it to keep 
off the relic hunters. During my visit there I tried to 
climb the fence in order to get a photograph of it, but 

10 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 



some of the Khedive's servants came up and warned me 
not to go in. The tree is surrounded by orange orchards 
which are irrigated by sakiehs worked by water buffaloes 
with blankets over their eyes. 

As I went by I stopped at one of these sakiehs and the 
men brought me some oranges from the Khedive's or- 
chard, selling them at the rate of eight for ten cents. 
They were wonderfully refreshing, and as I sat eating 
them in the shade of the trees outside the fence I won- 
dered whether Mary and Joseph had not perhaps thus 
quenched their thirst in the same place nearly two thou- 
sand years ago. Any resting place must have been wel- 
come after the long ride through the country to the 
edge of the great city of the sun. 

There are other stories told of the stay of the Holy 
Family in Egypt. One is that Joseph and Mary took 
the infant Jesus out to the Pyramids, and from there 
to the Sphinx. It is said that Mary laid Him in the 
lap of the Sphinx, and that He slept for a night on the 
paws of that mighty stone beast, half lion, half woman. 

As I travel through Egypt, these stories seem more 
vivid. I went down the other day to the banks of the 
Nile where the little baby Moses is said to have lain in 
the bulrushes in his boat of papyrus, and as I stood by 
the obelisk at Heliopolis I was reminded of the Virgin 
and the Saviour by a young girl who had a baby in her 
arms. She must have been about the same age that 
Mary was then, and the little one laughed and crowed as 
she rested there under the tropical sun. At the same 
time a score of other children ranging in age from two 
to twelve years gathered around me and posed for my 
camera in front of the obelisk. This great monolith was 

1 1 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

undoubtedly standing when our Saviour was carried 
through Egypt, and it was erected long before the baby 
Moses was rescued from the waters of the Nile. The 
great stone shaft seemed to tie the past and the present 
together, and the children of to-day brought to my mind 
those of the times of the Saviour. 

The children were glad to pose for me, but as I snapped 
the camera they rushed to the front with hands out- 
stretched, begging for baksheesh. I was at a loss how to 
fee so many, and finally gave twenty-five cents to my 
coachman and left him, to fight it out with the babies. 
The little ones mobbed him and he had to threaten them 
with his carriage whip to keep them away. He finally 
ended the trouble by giving each two children one half a 
piastre, so that each received little more than one cent. 
This made them quite happy. 

As I was about to leave the obelisk a party of Amer- 
ican tourists drove up. Among them was a smart twelve- 
year-old boy who put his hands in his pockets and gazed 
up at the stone as though he were ready to buy it. As 
he did so I said to him: 

"Hello, my little man, aren't you an American?" 

"You bet I am/' he promptly replied. "I came from 
Chicago in the state of Illinois. You are English, aren't 
you?" 

"No, I am an American, and my home is in Washing- 
ton." 

"Oh, yes," said the urchin. "I know all about that 
place. The President lives there. Say, what is the name 
of your ball team?" 

That was the interesting thing to him. Out here under 
the shadow of an obelisk four thousand years old, on the 

12 



IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN 

spot where Joseph was married to Asenath; where Plato 
philosophized and where Moses played; within plain 
sight of the Pyramids and near enough almost to hear 
the whisper of the Sphinx, he cared nothing for them. 
He was a live boy, and he wanted live things. Therefore 
the pitchers, catchers, and shortstops of the great Amer- 
ican diamond were worth more to him than all the 
stories of history and all the mummies of the museums. 



13 



CHAPTER III 



THE CITY OF JONAH 

« 

I HAVE come up out of the land of Egypt, out of 
the Israelitish "house of bondage/' and am to-day 
on the edge of the Promised Land. I am at Jaffa, 
the ancient Joppa, and the port for the Holy City. 
When Jacob went down from the highlands of Samaria 
to the Land of Goshen to meet Joseph, his journey took 
several weeks. I made the trip in the opposite direction 
by land and sea in less than a day. 

I took the express train at Cairo and in four hours was 
landed at Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal, 
where I got a steamer which brought me to Jaffa. The 
whole way was through the lands of the Bible. We 
struck the canal at Ismailia, about midway of the Isth- 
mus of Suez, and thence rode northward along its banks 
to Port Said. 

Our steamer was crowded with pilgrims from Russia, 
Egypt, and north Africa. There were many Americans, 
French, and Germans travelling first class, and hundreds 
of Syrians and Egyptians going steerage. The Russian 
pilgrims were particularly interesting to me. Old men 
and old women, with honest faces full of intelligence and 
goodness, they held their religious services all over the 
third-class portion of the ship, and I spent two hours 
watching them as one after another they turned their 
faces toward the Holy City and prayed, crossing them- 

14 



THE CITY OF JONAH 

selves, and now and then getting down upon their knees 
and bumping their heads against the deck in their wor- 
ship. They were curiously dressed and many of them 
wore long fur coats. Some had high fur hats and looked 
as if they had just stepped out of one of Tolstoi's novels. 
I was especially impressed with the strength of character 
shown in their faces and with their magnificent physique. 
If all of Russia's millions are of the same mould as those 
who make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they will some day 
prove to the world that there is in them as good stuff as 
ever made history or built up a civilization. The women, 
with their strong, motherly faces made heroic by toil and 
privation, were equally as striking as the men. They 
were better looking than any other peasant women I 
have ever seen, and the old saying of the Greeks came to 
me as I looked at them: "If strong be the frame of the 
mother, her sons shall make laws for the people." 

As the ship approached the Holy Land the people 
broke out into prayers, and in some cases into tears. 
It is a religious pilgrimage for them and they think, 
I doubt not, that in making it they are coming nearer to 
heaven. 

We had our first view of the shores of Palestine at 
seven o'clock in the morning, after a night on the steamer. 
We had been awakened at six with the cry that we were 
nearing shore, but this was a ruse of the captain to get 
breakfast out of the way before landing. 

When I came up on deck nothing but the sea was in 
sight. The sun was about two hours high and the sky, 
a light blue with long streaks of fleecy white drawn like 
a half-veil over it, curved down into the ocean at the 
eastern horizon. As I looked I saw two lines of hazy 

15 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



gray rise up out of the water, which rippled in sapphire 
wavelets, caught by the sun. The first line was the 
sandy beach that edges the rich plains of Sharon and the 
second the wall of smoky gray which marks the hills of 
Judea or the highlands of Palestine. As we came nearer, 
these lines increased in size, until the first turned to daz- 
zling white sand, out of which a little later the wooded 
green strip marking the port of Jaffa came into view. 
Nearer still we could see the shipping in the harbour, 
and above and behind it the walls of this, one of the old- 
est towns of the world. 

We get some idea of the age of Jaffa from the story of 
Jonah; for the Bible says that it was from here Jonah took 
passage upon the ship from which he was thrown into 
the sea into the mouth of the whale. He remained in the 
whale's belly for three days, during which time he prayed 
to the Lord, and the Lord spake to the whale, whereupon 
he was vomited out upon dry land. Jonah was born 
about eight hundred and fifty years before Christ. He 
was a baby when, according to some authorities, Homer 
was telling the story of the Iliad, and a hundred years 
had yet to elapse before the founding of Rome. I am 
not sure as to the exact spot where Jonah was taken 
up by the sailors and thrown into the sea, but he is said 
to have been buried not far from Jerusalem, and there 
are dragomans who will show you his tomb. Ever since 
Jonah's time sailors have been superstitious about having 
preachers along, thinking that such passengers bring bad 
luck to a ship. 

The harbour of Jaffa is one of the worst in the world. 
It is almost always rough and often so much so that it is 
impossible to land. Upon our arrival there was such a 

16 




These brickmakers work under a taskmaster to-day just as the Israel- 
ites toiled under the lash in this spot nearly four thousand years ago. 
Here was built Bubastes, the ancient Egyptian city sacred to the worship 
of the Cat 




We go ashore in small boats at the city of Jonah, which rises almost 
straight out of the water — but we see no whales 




The best view of Jaffa is had from the roof of the House of Simon the 
tanner where St. Peter had the vision which led to the preaching of Christ 
to the Gentiles. 



THE CITY OF JONAH 

swell that the boats which took us ashore bobbed up and 
down and the waves soaked our baggage. 

As to Jon^h himself and his narrow escape, one of our 
preachers on board has quoted a new version of why he 
and the whale parted company : 

" I threw up Jonah," said the whale, 

Who'd lately come to town; 
" I threw up Jonah, 

For I could not keep a good man down." 

In coming in I looked for whales. There were none in 
sight, although I am told they are still to be seen in the 
Mediterranean. In their place, however, were many 
jellyfish of an opalescent blue. These fish were as big 
as a football and of the shape of a mushroom. There 
were hundreds of them floating about and bumping 
against the hull of our ship as we lay at anchor. 

Besides the story of Jonah there are many well-au- 
thenticated facts about Jaffa which make it interesting. 
It has always been the chief port for the Holy Land. It 
was at one time owned by the Phoenicians, and later, when 
Solomon built the temple, it was here that the timber 
used in its construction was landed. Most of this was 
cedar which came from the forests of Lebanon several 
hundred miles up the coast. The logs were dragged down 
the mountains and thrown into the sea at Tyre and 
Sidon. They were there made into rafts and towed 
down to Jaffa, whence they were carried up to Jerusalem 
by camels and men. 

Jaffa was an important port in the days of the Crusades, 
and was fought for again and again. At one time its 
walls were overthrown by Saladin, but a little later they 

17 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

were rebuilt by Richard the Lion-hearted, the King of 
England, who came here in a vain attempt to rescue the 
Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Turks. In ad- 
dition to all this there is a tradition that Andromeda, 
the beautiful daughter of the mythical king of this 
country, was here chained to the rocks in order that she 
might appease a huge sea serpent which threatened to 
eat up the people. While so imperilled she was rescued 
by Perseus, who killed the monster and married her. 
In Pliny's time the historians state that the chains by 
which Andromeda was bound to the rocks were still to be 
seen, and that the bones of the sea serpent were carried 
to Rome and placed upon exhibition there. 

The Jaffa of to-day stands upon a bluff washed by the 
Mediterranean Sea. The city is built right on the rocks, 
with its yellow, white, and blue houses coming down to 
the cliff edge. They rise up the steep sides of the bluff 
which makes a wall cutting off the view of the country 
behind. At the south of the bluff, as far as one can see, 
are white sands. At the north are orange groves and then 
more sand. 

As we left the ship we came down a gangway and were 
lifted into the boats. The third-class and steerage pas- 
sengers were hung over the sides of the deck of the steamer 
by the arms, and dropped down into the boats, twelve 
or more feet below. Some of the women screamed as 
they fell, making the rocks reecho with their cries as 
though the beautiful Andromeda were still chained there. 
We had no trouble with the customs, largely, I believe, be- 
cause our dragomans had given the officers a liberal amount 
of baksheesh. The examination was short, and within half 
an hour after landing we were comfortably housed at 

18 



THE CITY OF JONAH 

the Jerusalem Hotel. I mention this hotel because I 
found it was kept by a character who was for a long time 
our American consular agent. His name is Hardegg, 
and he spices his food with a religious doctrine of his 
own kind. The hotel rooms are not numbered i, 2, 3, 
etc., but are named after the sons of Israel and the various 
Old Testament prophets. Each of them contains a book 
which Hardegg has compiled entitled " Bible Pills." It 
is composed of texts from the Scriptures fitted to one's 
daily life. 

The city of Jaffa has normally about fifty thousand 
inhabitants of whom the majority are Mohammedans 
and the rest Christians and Jews. It has considerable 
trade and is rapidly growing. The rich plains of Sharon 
at the back furnish sesame, grain, and olive oil, while 
the highlands of Judea and Samaria produce wool, just 
as they did in the times of our Saviour. All about the 
town are orange groves the fruit of which is shipped to 
all parts of the Mediterranean. The oranges are almost 
the shape of a lemon, but they are of a great size and 
sweet as honey. They are packed up in boxes at the 
groves and carried down to the harbour on the backs of 
camels. I met the caravans of these huge beasts swaying 
along as they made their way to the steamers. 

I was taken through the native quarters of Jaffa by a 
young Syrian named Moses. We went together through 
streets so narrow and winding that carriages could not 
enter them, and at times we were altogether shaded by 
the houses, the roofs of which almost touched overhead. 
We entered several of the dwellings. Each consisted of 
but one room facing a court where the men, women, and 
children were herded together. 

19 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The house of Simon the Tanner was destroyed some 
centuries ago, but another house, which is probably of 
the same character, stands on its site, and tanning is still 
done in the neighbourhood. At least, it seems so by the 
smells. This house is now used as a second-class inn. It 
is a rocky structure, built high up over the sea, with steps 
outside which lead to the second story and roof. I 
climbed to the top, and there saw about the same view 
as did St. Peter. In front of me the blue Mediterranean 
stretched out toward the west. At the north were the 
glistening sands reaching toward the ruins of Caesarea 
and the foothills of Mount Carmel, while at the south were 
the hills near which stood Askalon. It was here that St. 
Peter had that wonderful dream, in which he beheld all 
the beasts of the world let down from heaven in a sheet, 
in order that he might eat of them. You remember that 
he refused, saying: "Not so, Lord! for I have never eaten 
anything that is common or unclean." 

And then came a voice which said: "What God hath 
cleansed that call not thou common." 

It was these words that first led to the preaching of the 
Gospel to the Gentiles, bringing about the conversion of 
Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and later on the preach- 
ing of Christ to all the world. 

As my guide refreshed my biblical memory with this 
story, he told me of an American who had visited this 
place with him last week. Said Moses: 

"This American was a funny man, and it seemed to me 
a foolish one. He was not satisfied with seeing this house, 
but he asked me to show him the vision that St. Peter 
saw, and demanded to know what had become of the sheet. 
He said he did not think he ought to pay me unless I 

20 



Impenetrable hedges of giant cactus bushes intermingled with thorn 
are often used as fences to separate land holdings. One seldom sees a 
man carrying a water jar, for that is "women's work" in the Holy Land 



THE CITY OF JONAH 

could show him the vision, but I told him that I could 
not do that unless he had St. Peter's heart, and I was 
sure that he had not." 

This American was probably facetious, but his ques- 
tions are not unlike those of many of the tourists whose 
ignorance and superstition surpass belief. Many of them 
credit the most extravagant stories of every guide, and 
go about kissing spots which they imagine to be hal- 
lowed by their connection with the Bible, but of whose 
authenticity no one knows. 

There is one thing I must not forget about Jaffa, 
and that is that here was born the modern sewing bee, I 
might almost say the Woman's Missionary Society. You 
have all heard of Dorcas, the queen of the needle, who 
was raised from the dead by St. Peter. She was noted 
for the garments she had made for the poor, and at her 
funeral the people gathered round and showed specimens 
of the needlework she had sewed and hemmed and 
stitched for them. 

Dorcas lived two or three miles outside Jaffa on a hill 
which has a commanding view of the country for miles 
around. It overlooks the sea and land, including thou- 
sands of acres of orange groves and gardens containing 
all kinds of fruits. The site of her house is now occupied 
by a Russian Greek Catholic Church and a tomb has 
been erected over her grave hard by. 

I drove out to the place in a carriage, winding my way 
in and out through orange groves and up the hill to the 
church. Here I met a Russian priest, who was acquiring 
merit by guarding the bones of the saint in whose honour 
prayers are said daily. It was with him that I visited 
the tomb. It is of stone and is roofed by a dome, the 

21 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

whole being covered with plaster. There is a door at 
the front, and by descending several steps one can see 
the piece of mosaic which covers the spot where Dorcas 
lies. There are catacombs to the right and left contain- 
ing the bones of saints, and over the whole rise magnificent 
trees. 



22 



CHAPTER IV 



BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA 

TAKE a seat with me this morning in the railroad 
car which is just about leaving the seaport of 
Jaffa to go to Jerusalem. The distance by rail 
is only fifty-four miles, but it will take us more 
than four hours. Crossing the rich plains of Sharon, 
the road winds its way up the hills of Judea until it 
brings us to the Holy City, about twenty-five hundred 
feet above the sea. 

The cars are comfortable, but we have had to fight 
with the tourists and pilgrims for our seats near the 
windows. A German and a Greek on the opposite side of 
the coach are still quarrelling for places, using language 
not that of brotherly love. The German has just called 
the Greek a swine, while the Greek has retaliated by 
simply calling the German a dog. But now they are 
quiet and we can enjoy the scenery as we go on. 

Leaving Jaffa we ride for some miles through orchards. 
There are orange groves loaded with blossoms and fruit. 
There are orchards of olives, pomegranates, and figs, 
and many gardens surrounded by cactus hedges twice as 
high as our heads. Next we enter the rich plain where 
the Philistines lived. The soil is brown and so fat that 
you have only to tickle it with the plough and it laughs 
with the harvest. You do not wonder that the Philis- 
tines fought for this fertile land. 

23 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Here is a green field of wheat. The stalks stand as 
thick as grass, and rise and fall with the winds from the 
sea. There a native is ploughing with a bullock and don- 
key harnessed together. The plough is the rude implement 
of the Scriptures, and the dark-skinned farmer steadies 
it with one hand, while he carries a goad in the other. 
Farther on are camels dragging the ploughs. In places 
we see flocks of fat sheep, herded by boys, and now and 
then pass a village of flat, white-walled houses with thick 
roofs of thatch on which the grass grows. Nearly every 
house has a roof of sod about a foot deep, and as we near 
the hills, the towns on their sides rise up in green terraces. 

Here some shepherds in sheep-skin coats, with the wool 
inside, are watching their flocks, and there, pulling up 
bunches of grass for her cattle, is a maiden who makes us 
think of Ruth gathering wheat in the harvest-fields of 
Boaz. Here and there throughout the plains of Sharon 
we see the watch-towers built for soldiers posted to en- 
sure the Turkish Sultan's share of the farmers' crops. 

The landscape here is far different from that of the 
United States. There are no houses or barns standing 
alone in the fields. There are no outbuildings of any 
description, and no haystacks or strawstacks. The peo- 
ple live in villages and go out to work in the fields. Tht 
only fences are cactus hedges, but most of the holdings 
are not fenced in at all. 

The land is fertile clear to the mountains, a distance of 
perhaps twenty miles. In the foothills there are patches 
of green, while higher up fields are here and there cut 
out of the rocks, which are built up to hold in the earth. 
I have never seen a country more rocky. The rough 
lands of the Blue Ridge are Nile farms compared to the 

24 




THE HOLY LAND 



BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA 

hills through which our train climbs up to Jerusalem. 
In many places there is nothing but rocks. The lime- 
stone strata are piled stone upon stone, looking like 
mighty monuments rising on the hills. In some places 
mountains rise in steps forming pyramids of white lime- 
stone, sparsely sprinkled with patches of grass and red 
poppies. 

As we begin to ascend the hills of Judea, we come into 
the real land of the Israelites. Our railroad winds in and 
out among little mountains and we can see that in the 
past the whole country was terraced and that not a bit 
of land went to waste. What is now the grazing ground 
for sheep and cattle was once a garden. 

Palestine reminds us of other parts of the world. The 
rich fruit of the orange groves of Jaffa makes us think of 
Florida. Were it not for the lack of fences and barns, 
the plains of Sharon might be a slice out of Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania, or the rich fields of the Scioto 
Valley in Ohio. These hills are very like Italy near 
Genoa, or south France about Nice and Monte Carlo. 
The terraces are planted with olive trees and we see 
gray-green olive orchards everywhere. 

As we rise the air becomes purer and fresher. We pass 
the spot on which David is said to have killed Goliath, 
and see in the distance the town of Mizpah, where the 
Prophet anointed Saul king when the latter was out 
hunting his father's asses. When we see an old bearded 
and turbaned Syrian riding along on his donkey, we won- 
der if he may not be a second Balaam, and we almost 
expect his donkey to open its mouth and speak to its 
master. 

But let me tell you something about the railroad up to 

25 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Jerusalem. The track is narrow gauge, and the coaches 
are much like street cars, with little racks for baggage along 
each side under the roof. Each carriage is divided into 
compartments the sides of which are walled with windows. 
The road has no tunnels, and it winds its way in and out 
as it climbs the hills. There are five stations between 
Jaffa and Jerusalem. 

The total cost of the railroad was two million dollars, 
or a little less than forty thousand dollars per mile. The 
idea of the road was originated by an American, a civil 
engineer named Zimpel, who came to Palestine as a ped- 
lar of a patent medicine which he called "Sunlight 
Pills. " He brought the scheme before the Sultan at 
Constantinople, but failed to get the concession to build 
it. After his death the matter was taken up by the 
French, who put the line through. 

This was the first railroad built in Syria, and it is the 
father of a system which is now opening up a great part 
of the country. One section is the road building from 
Damascus toward Mecca, and connected with it are 
others which will eventually join the Holy Land to the 
valley of the Euphrates, as well as to Asia Minor and 
Turkey. The rates for both passengers and freight are 
much higher than in the United States. 

As it goes up the mountains, the railway twists this 
way and that. It crawls along the sides of the hills with 
horseshoe curves here and there. The whole journey is 
over historic ground. We cross the plains where Samson 
fought with the Philistines, slaying a thousand of them 
with the jawbone of an ass. We see the place where he 
tied the firebrands to the tails of three hundred foxes 
and let them loose to burn up the harvest. A little far- 

26 



BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA 

ther on we enter the valley of Sorek, where the wicked 
Delilah cut off the hair of the strong man as he lay asleep 
in her lap, and away up on the side of the hill we can see 
the town of Zorah, where Samson was born. At the 
station of Deir Aban, where Samuel raised his Ebenezer, 
a crowd of children comes to the trains with bouquets 
of wild flowers. The boys whine for baksheesh. We 
wonder whether there may not be an infant Samson 
among them. 

It was in Zorah that Samson was buried, and the guides 
will show you his tomb. Farther along the road we pass 
through a great gorge in the cliffs, on the north side of 
which, near the top, is a cave, where Samson lived, and 
I verily believe if we should offer the guides sufficient 
reward they would find us his bones or some pieces of 
brass from the gates of the city of Gaza, which, you re- 
member, he carried away on his shoulders. 

In our ride up to Jerusalem we go by the ancient city 
of Gezer. It is marked by a mound which has several 
buildings upon it, including the dome of a Mohammedan 
mosque. The ground about it has been dug over and 
over, and the ruins discovered have excited the religious 
and scientific world. 

The excavations made by the Palestine Exploration 
Fund show it to be one of the oldest of cities. The 
scientists have gone down into the earth at this point, 
finding one city built upon the ruins of another, down 
to the seventh city, which seems to have been oc- 
cupied by the cave dwellers of the Flint or Stone Age, 
a period before recorded history began. In these cave 
dwellings pottery and flint instruments were discovered. 
A burial place of that ancient race was opened up and 

27 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

remains were found which show that the cave dwellers 
practised cremation. . In one of the six other cities, higher 
up, bronze tools were discovered, and higher still the relics 
of an ancient Egyptian civilization. In one of the caves 
were found large jars containing the skeletons of infants 
that had been sacrificed to some pagan idol, probably 
during the Canaanite period. In another was a cistern, 
the mouth of which was guarded by the skulls of two 
young girls, and inside which were fourteen skeletons, 
one that of a girl of sixteen who had been sawn asunder. 

The King of Gezer was defeated by Joshua, and later 
the city was captured by a king of Egypt, who was one 
of Solomon's three hundred-odd fathers-in-law. The 
story is that Pharaoh gave Gezer to Solomon as a dowry 
with his daughter, and that Solomon rebuilt the city. 
At the time of the Crusades Richard Cceur de Lion and 
Saladin fought over it, and it was an important fortress 
at the time of the Maccabees. 

The archaeologists of the Palestine Exploration Fund 
have discovered bronze pots, ivory tablets, statues, and 
jewels and other treasures of a half-dozen different pe- 
riods of history. In one of the cities a complete olive press 
made of stone was unearthed, and in another an Egyptian 
statuette about four thousand years old. The figure 
was that of a man with a beard and a wig. Bronze 
tweezers were found as well as many articles of Greek 
and Roman times. One of the most interesting discov- 
eries was a reservoir with a capacity of four million 
gallons. Another was a place supposed to belong to one 
of the Maccabees. 

The Palestine Exploration Fund is not a religious body, 
but rather a scientific and historical society. It has spent 

28 




The children are what we like best in the Holy Land, even though they 
have generally learned from their elders the habit of begging for backsheesh 




The ass of this sheeted Balaam opens his mouth but only a bray 
comes forth. The roads are so fearful that many places may not be 
reached by wheeled vehicles and the sure-footed donkey is usually the 
best mount 



BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA 

about fourteen thousand dollars a year on such work, 
most of the sums being collected in amounts of five dol- 
lars or less from English and Americans all over the 
world. The Fund has made great discoveries in Je- 
rusalem. It has surveyed and mapped a great part of 
Palestine and has added many Bible sites to those al- 
ready known. 



29 



CHAPTER V 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA 

THE size of Palestine is surprising to every visitor. 
You know it is small, but you cannot appreciate 
how small it is until you have travelled over it. 
Then you see why it has been called "the least 
of all lands." The whole country does not average more 
than fifty miles wide, and it is only about a hundred and 
forty miles long. You could lose it in many of the counties 
of Texas, and on some of its mountains you can look from 
one side of it to the other. Standing on the Mount of 
Olives, just outside of Jerusalem, I could see the Mediter- 
ranean on the west and on the east the Dead Sea and the 
River Jordan. From Dan to Beersheba is not as far 
as from New York to Washington, and the "stormy 
banks" of the Jordan inclose a stream across many parts 
of which you can easily throw a stone, and which though 
it winds in and out like a corkscrew, is not over two hun- 
dred miles long. The Mount of Olives, upon which Jesus 
was taken by the Devil, is described as "an exceeding 
high mountain," but it is only about twenty-seven hundred 
feet high and would be no more than a hill in the Rockies. 
"All the kingdoms of the world" which Satan showed 
him consisted of a few half-barren hills and some fertile 
plains, which together would not make more than a good- 
sized Western county. With an aeroplane we could fly 
across the whole of Palestine in less than an hour. In- 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA 

eluding Syria, which takes in the mountains of Lebanon 
and much other country in addition to Palestine proper, it 
is not as long as from New York to Pittsburgh. It begins 
at the boundary of the French Mandate of Syria on the 
north, and extends from there southward along the line of 
the Mediterranean Sea until it is lost in the sands of 
Arabia. 

Though it has bulked so large in history and religion, 
the Holy Land itself is not as big as Rhode Island, while 
all Palestine is only about the size of Vermont. If you 
could take it up and stretch it over the United States it 
would hardly make a patch of court plaster on Uncle 
Sam's body. Dropped down upon New England, with 
one end at Boston, the other would be at Mount Wash- 
ington, and most of the country would not be wider than 
from Boston to Springfield. If spread out upon northern 
Illinois the whole might be included inside a line drawn 
from Chicago to Aurora and thence to Decatur and 
back to Chicago. 

The Bible has called this little territory a land of milk 
and honey. The expression must have been used by 
contrast to the dreary sand of the Sinai desert, through 
which the Israelites travelled on their way hither. As 
I know from former travels, it is more rocky than any 
part of the Alleghanies; and the Blue Ridge of Virginia, 
which is covered with stones, is the Mississippi Valley 
compared with it. The country has a backbone of moun- 
tains comprising the hills of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, 
with a low coastal plain, where the Philistines lived, extend- 
ing to the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side of the 
backbone is the great ditch in which lie the Sea of Tiberias, 
or Galilee, and the Dead Sea, with the winding Jordan 

3i 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

running from one to the other. This ditch is below the 
level of the sea and parts of it have the hottest and most 
oppressive climate on earth. On the opposite side of the 
Jordan toward the east is a country much richer than 
Palestine. It is composed of highlands from two thousand 
to three thousand feet above sea level, giving excellent 
pasture and, in the north, large crops of wheat. This 
was the Bashan, Gilead, and Moab of the Bible, and it 
is now inhabited chiefly by Mohammedan Bedouins, who 
live in tents, driving their camels, cattle, and sheep from 
place to place. In the past it was thickly populated, 
and archaeologists have uncovered the ruined cities of 
the people who used to live there. Palestine, on the other 
hand, could never have had a very large population, and 
the "hosts" spoken of in the Scriptures would dwindle 
by comparison with the numbers of people we are used 
to nowadays. 

The trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem gives us a fair idea 
of the character of the country. The coastal plain is 
typical of the richest part. Its soil is a chocolate brown, 
the grass is as green as that of Egypt, and there are great 
orchards of olives and fruits of all kinds. The roads are 
lined with rich red poppies and there are wild flowers on 
all sides. 

Climbing the hills is like jumping from the Nile Valley 
into the desert. There is nothing but rocks with a sparse 
vegetation scattered here and there through them. The 
limestone crops out everywhere, and in places heaps of 
stones have been thrown up to make little fields. Such 
fields are fenced with stone walls. There are also corrals 
for the sheep made in this way. 

Palestine has no woods. There are no groves or bushes. 

32 



Fuel is so scarce in this land of no woods that even roots and twigs 
bring good prices. Two years of poor olive crops often drive the peasants 
to cutting down their precious olive trees and selling them 



The Pool of Hezekiah, opened by an ancient Hebrew king in the city 
of Jerusalem, is fed by a fountain in the hills. Not until the British came 
did the city have an adequate water-supply. One old Arab said, " For four 
hundred years, the Turks did not give us so much as a cup of cold water" 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA 

Almost the only trees are fruit trees, with now and 
then a funereal cypress in a garden. Our consul tells 
me that the country has two groves which the people 
call forests. One of these contains forty scrub oaks and 
the other is not quite so large. He says that a few 
years ago there was some brush on the hillside, but 
that the people have even dug up the roots and sold 
them for fuel. 

Indeed, fuel is one of the most costly things in this 
country. It is so expensive that it is seldom used except 
for cooking, and that notwithstanding the fact that the 
climate is cold. Wood is so valuable that the older olive 
trees are being cut down, and it is feared that the olive 
orchards will gradually disappear. These old trees are 
often of considerable thickness, but they are only twenty 
or thirty feet tall so that one will supply but a small 
amount of firewood. The olive tree is as hard as the 
apple and far more knotted and gnarly. Its wood is 
heavy and is sold by the ton. It is brought in on the 
backs of donkeys and camels and every stick has to pay a 
tax before it gets inside the gates of Jerusalem. 

A common fuel is charcoal, made mostly of olive wood. 
It is made chiefly at Hebron, about twenty-three miles 
south of Jerusalem, near the cave where Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob are buried and where tradition says Adam died. 
Hebron, which is about five hundred feet higher than 
Jerusalem, has big orchards of olives, almonds, and ap- 
ples, the brush and the dead wood of which are used to 
make charcoal. 

The use of coal is almost out of the question on account 
of the high rates over the railroads. The same charge is 
made for carrying coal as for carrying silk. Such coal 

33 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



as comes here is in the shape of briquettes and sells for 
high prices. 

Another lack from which the Holy Land suffers is water. 
The rainfall in the southern sections is something like six 
inches and upward a year, the amount gradually increas- 
ing as one goes northward toward Galilee. The country 
has always been one of pools and wells, and every house 
in Jerusalem has its roofs so made that they drain into 
cisterns placed in the courts. In dry seasons water is 
sold, and the man who has a spare cistern gets a big price 
for his surplus. 

Nearly all the wells of the olden times remain, and are 
pointed out by the dragomans. One can drink from the 
well where Christ met the Samaritan, woman, and from 
many cisterns scattered over the country. Most of them 
are shaped like great pears. 

When the pools of Solomon were connected with Je- 
rusalem it was thought that they would supply the city 
with water. These pools are on the highlands between 
Bethlehem and Hebron. They are cut out of the solid 
rock, and it is said that they originally held about forty 
million gallons. There are three of them, ranging in 
height from three hundred and eighty to five hundred 
and eighty feet. They lie in terraces one above the other, 
being of varying widths. The depths are from twenty- 
five to fifty feet. If they were in good condition they 
could supply a vast deal of water, but as it is, the aque- 
ducts which Solomon built to Jerusalem have gone to ruin, 
and there is now only a four-inch iron pipe running from 
them to the city. The pipe comes in near the Dung Gate 
and goes from there to the temple platform. I stumbled 
over it the other day. I am told that the water is used 

34 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA 

almost altogether for the Mosque of Omar, although it is 
connected with the fountains of the city, which are only 
occasionally allowed to play. 

In addition to these pools there are many others in and 
about Jerusalem. The Pool of Hezekiah is in the heart 
of the city, not far from the Church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre; and the Pool of Siloam, where Our Lord sent the 
blind man to wash, is in the valley of Jehoshaphat, out- 
side the walls. 

Just now the Holy Land is suffering from drought and 
the people are praying for rain. We have had one or 
two showers in the last few days, but more is needed or 
the crops will fail. Most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
are great believers in prayer, and Mohammedans, Chris- 
tians, and Jews are all holding services at which they 
ask the Lord to send water. 

We had a slight rain yesterday and more is expected. 
The people evidently think their prayers will be answered. 
As I walked through David Street I heard two Moham- 
medans talking. Their language was Arabic, but my 
dragomans told me that one had just said to the other: 

"How good God is, after all. We have prayed for the 
rain and, lo, it has come." 

When the first shower began to fall I was standing 
in a doorway. A little girl, perhaps eight years old, 
passed by with a platter of bread on her head. The rain 
was pouring down upon it and she was wet to the skin, 
but nevertheless she was singing. I asked my guide the 
words of her song. He replied: "She cries: 'Praise 
God for the rain! Praise God for the rain! Praise God 
for the rain!'" 



35 



CHAPTER VI 

JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

I WRITE these words on the housetop of a bishop's 
residence on the summit of Mount Zion and in the 
centre of the Holy City. My typewriter stands within 
thirty feet of the great square Tower of David the 
base of which was undoubtedly built before the time of 
Christ. At my left, surrounded by the yellow stone walls 
of the houses, is the dark green pool Hezekiah made to sup- 
ply Jerusalem with water in case of siege, and beyond it, 
out of the jumble of buildings, shines the huge bronze dome 
erected over the spot where Christ was crucified. Not 
half a mile away on a plateau covering thirty-five acres 
is a big octagonal tower with a bulbous bronze dome. 
That is the Mosque of Omar which rises on the very site 
of Solomon's temple. At its left is the church built over 
the Roman mosaic floor of the house of Pontius Pilate. 

Jerusalem lies in a nest of mountains. It is built on 
an irregular plateau with valleys all about it and steep 
hills rising straight up from these to the city and to the 
higher hills on the opposite sides. The site of the city 
runs over height and hollow, and was probably chosen 
for the capital of Judea on account of the great gorges 
about it, by which it could be the more easily defended 
against attack. 

Around the edge of the plateau is a wall about thirty 
feet high enclosing the Jerusalem of to-day. The wall 

36 




Jerusalem lies in a nest of hills which seem flattened out when viewed 
from an airplane. It is on a plateau twenty-five hundred feet above 
sea-level, and the city is divided into four quarters, each on its own hill 



The walls of the Holy City were breached at the Jaffa gate to provide 
a special entrance for the German Kaiser when he visited Jerusalem. 
He was arrayed as a crusading knight and rode a prancing snow-white 
steed 



JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 



runs along the rims of the valleys, climbing up hill 
and down, making its way around the Holy City until 
it comes again to the Jaffa Gate which is just below 
me. 

The Holy City now covers twice as much space as it 
did when I was first here a good many years ago. It 
has doubled in size and has some sixty thousand people. 
At that time most of the inhabitants were crowded to- 
gether inside the walls. They are crowded still, but to 
the north, south, and west large Jewish settlements have 
sprung up, and among and beyond them have been built 
great hospices, hospitals, convents, cathedrals, and hotels, 
so that the population outside the walls almost equals 
that within. The new buildings have extended to the 
Mount of Olives, and are working their way toward the 
east along the road to Jaffa. 

Seated here upon the site of King David's palace, I see 
the whole city spread out beneath me. What a curious 
place it is! In my tours of the world I have found no 
spot so full of strange sights and picturesque characters, 
so different in most particulars from every other town of 
the world. Aside from its wonderfully interesting his- 
torical associations, Jerusalem has a character of its own. 
It looks more like a great honeycomb than a city. The 
houses are piled one above the other in all sorts of ir- 
regularities. If you would take a half-section of land and 
scatter over it gigantic packing boxes just as you find 
them in a down-town alley, you might get some idea of 
Jerusalem as it looks to me from Mount Zion. These 
houses have no chimneys and their stone roofs are almost 
flat. Many of the roofs have in the centre little domes that 
remind me of beehives. If the town were on a level these 

37 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



domes would look like the haycocks in a meadow at 
harvest time. 

The wood used in the construction of Jerusalem would 
not last an American family a winter. Yellow limestone 
is the sole building material. The roofs, walls, and floors 
of these thousands of houses are of this cold, yellowish- 
white rock. Even in the Bishop's mansion, which is one 
of the finest in the city, I step out of my bed on to a stone 
floor and walk to my breakfast down stone steps and 
through stone halls. 

Now look at the streets with me. They are narrow and 
winding and some are built over, so that going through 
them is like passing through tunnels or subterranean 
caves. 

Indeed, Jerusalem is a city of cave dwellers. Many 
of the stores and houses are little more than holes in 
the rocks. I visited a native inn yesterday right in the 
heart of the town. It consisted of a series of vaulted 
chambers which looked much like caves. In one cave 
were four donkeys, two camels, and a party of Bedouins. 
In another were a dozen Jews from Samaria, and in a 
third were some men and camels who had just come 
from beyond the Jordan. The only sign of modern 
times was an English lamp burning American kerosene 
oil. Through my guide I chatted with the keeper of the 
stable, or inn, as it was called, and he told me that his 
charge for feeding and washing a donkey or a horse was 
five cents a day. 

Jerusalem of to-day is founded upon the remains of 
the Jerusalems of the past, and the excavations have un- 
earthed houses and temples far below the streets of the 
present. The original floor and court of the house in 

38 



JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

which Pontius Pilate examined the Christ is much lower 
than the level of the present city, and mosaics and mar- 
bles, including carvings of various kinds and Greek and 
Roman capitals and columns, are frequently uncovered 
in digging the foundations for new buildings. 

There are many caves outside of Jerusalem and people 
live in some of them. The tombs of the kings on the edge 
of the city have been cut out of the solid rock, and some 
of them are so large that a city house could be dropped 
into one and not touch the walls. An excavation of the 
Pool of Bethesda has shown that it is eighty feet deep 
and covers nearly an acre. Right under the temple 
platform are enormous caverns known as Solomon's 
Stables, and near by there is a space honeycombed with 
vast tanks which will hold millions of gallons of water. 

All of the water for the Holy City comes down in rain, 
and the trees and gardens of the town can be numbered 
on your fingers. The surrounding hills are almost as 
barren as some of the rocky slopes of New England, and 
the only foliage visible is the dark silvery green of the 
orchards on the Mount of Olives and along the hills be- 
tween Jaffa and Bethlehem. The only grass to be seen 
is an acre or so of common inside the walls of the temple 
plateau, and here and there a house top, which by age has 
gathered a coating of dirt from the dust of the city, and 
on which the green grass has sprouted. Occasionally I 
see ruined arches, too dangerous to be inhabited by the 
bees of this human hive, on which grow moss and grass. 
There is one green bushy tree at the base of Mount Cal- 
vary, and a solitary palm beside the business street 
named after King David looks out over the city. Jeru- 
salem is not an attractive looking town, and the glare 

39 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



from its cream-white buildings lying under the rays of 
this tropical sun makes my eyes sore. 

Jerusalem is the Mecca of millions of souls. It is to 
hundreds of millions the holiest spot on the face of the 
earth. Everywhere buildings have gone up both to ac- 
commodate pilgrims and to mark the most sacred places. 
On the very top of the Mount of Olives a great Russian 
church lifts its swelling domes toward heaven. In the 
Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ spent that night of 
"agony and bloody sweat" before His crucifixion, there 
is a resting place for pilgrims. The Roman Catholics 
have fifteen hundred brothers and sisters in their mon- 
asteries and convents, while the old Armenian church 
can accommodate a hundred and eighty monks and two 
thousand pilgrims. There are Greek Christians here by 
the thousands and Egyptian Copts by the hundreds. 
There are Abyssinian priests with faces as black as your 
hat. Indeed, among the worshippers who gather around 
the Holy Sepulchre you may see every costume and hear 
every language. Furthermore, the Jews are fast coming 
back into Palestine, and Jerusalem is again becoming a 
city of the Children of Israel. 

But let us come down from our housetop and take a 
walk through the crowd. We are at the Jaffa Gate, which 
leads to the railroad station a half mile from the walls. 
It is also at the end of the roads to Bethlehem, Hebron, 
and Jaffa, and is the main business gate of the city. It 
is always thronged, and the people who go in and out 
come from all parts of the world. They are of all colours — 
blacks, browns, yellows, and whites — and number a dozen 
different nationalities from the near-by parts of Asia, 
Europe, and Africa. Here comes a donkey led by a fat, 

40 



JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

bare-footed Turk in a yellow gown and red turban. His 
beast is loaded with wood which he is bringing into 
the city for sale. The wood is the roots of olive trees 
and his donkey load is worth twenty-five cents. He is 
stopped by the customs officer at the gate and pays a 
tax of three cents. Behind him comes a porter with a 
bag half as big as a hogshead fastened to the small of his 
back. Inside the bag is a basket filled with the flat 
cakes which form the bread of the city. 

Now turn to the right and look at that Syrian Bedouin 
riding a gray Arabian pony. There is a gun on his 
back and he wears a black-and-white woollen blanket. 
His head is covered with a great yellow handkerchief 
bound about the crown with two strands of hair cord the 
size of your finger. Sitting as straight as a ramrod, he 
looks with fierce black eyes at the crowd about him. Be- 
hind him come three camels laden with the oranges of 
Jaffa. Each beast has a cartload of the great yellow balls 
in the two crates which hang over his back, and he 
grumbles and whines as his barefooted driver drags him 
along by a string tied to his nose. 

As we look we see the figures of the Old and New Tes- 
taments crowding around us. There are peasants who 
might have been among the disciples, and gray-bearded 
men who would pass for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We 
see boys with coats of many colours, which remind us 
of Joseph, and shepherds driving sheep into market who 
probably came from the very plains near Bethlehem 
where similar shepherds were watching their flocks when 
the heavenly host appeared. 

Let us take a seat with those Syrians on the porch of 
the coffee house outside the gate and make further 

4i 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



sketches of those who go in. Here come two figures 
dressed all in white. They look like walking bed ticks 
bound around at the middle, or, better, like the ghosts of 
a sheet and pillow case party. They are Mohammedan 
women, and it is against their ironclad custom for them 
to go out unveiled. They have wrapped their bodies in 
sheets the folds of which they hold close together over 
their faces, leaving only a crack by which they may see 
to pick their way through the crowd. 

Behind them is a girl with bare face. She wears a 
round cap which extends a foot above her rosy brown 
forehead, and she has a headdress of white cotton. Her 
gown is a gray chemise which falls almost to her feet, 
and which has a wide hem of red and blue silk embroid- 
ery. She is a Bethlehem maiden wearing the shawl 
made with her own hands for her wedding. Such shawls 
are much prized by tourists, and the best of them bring 
twenty-five dollars apiece in the stores. 

But here are some women in long coats and high 
boots. They have calico gowns under their coats which 
reach half way down the calf. Their heads are covered 
with handkerchiefs, and their faces are bronzed by the 
sun. Each has a staff in her hand and a bag on her 
back, and is marching along at the rate of four miles an 
hour. They are dusty and dirty, and look weary and 
worn. Those are peasant women, pilgrims from Russia, 
who are making their way from shrine to shrine. They 
have tramped this morning out to Bethlehem, and to- 
morrow will probably be on their way to the Jordan. 

But let us leave here and take a walk about the walls 
of the Holy City. 



42 



CHAPTER VII 



AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY 

I HAVE tramped about the walls of Jerusalem on 
foot and have ridden round them upon donkeys. 
Let us make the trip on foot. 
Some of the walls which still stand were laid up 
by Solomon, others were erected by Herod the Great, 
who built David's Tower, and others by Agrippa only a 
few years after Christ's death. 

We walk across the road leading to Bethlehem, down 
which the Wise Men of the East rode on their way to the 
birthplace of the Saviour, and picking our steps through 
a caravan of camels lying there, climb up the slope of 
Mount Zion. There is a moat at the foot of the tower 
which is one hundred feet wide and thirty feet deep, and 
the wall rises perhaps one hundred feet above this. There 
are olive trees between the road and the walls, and as 
we go we see ragged donkeys feeding among them. 

Now we have passed the moat and come close to the 
wall. Though its lower portions are about two thousand 
years old, the stones are as firm as when they were laid. 

Going onward, we pass tower after tower running fif- 
teen or twenty feet out from the wall and rising five or 
six feet above it. These towers were used for the archers 
and watchmen stationed there on the lookout for the 
enemy. 

A little beyond David's Tower, almost against the 

43 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

walls, is the great church built by the Germans. Its 
site commands a view over the whole of Jerusalem and 
was sold to the Kaiser of Germany by the Sultan of 
Turkey. A part of the churchyard is the American 
cemetery, which was sold by our consul. Its sale caused 
great excitement among the Americans at Jerusalem, and 
the American colony here protested against the removal 
of their dead, which they said was done after dark. 
The bodies were taken up and carried to the English 
cemetery. 

Continuing our walk we hug the wall looking down 
into the Valley of Hinnom until we come to Zion Gate, 
and a little farther on to the Dung Gate. Below this in 
the Valley of Jehoshaphat lies the Pool of Siloam. At 
the Zion Gate a group of lepers are begging. They are 
ragged and filthy and hold out the stumps of their hands 
asking for alms. On the inside of this gate stood the 
house of Caiaphas, where Peter three times denied that 
he was one of the disciples of Christ, before the cock 
crowed. 

As we go on we see chickens scratching in the earth 
outside the wall, and as we look at the gardens on the 
slopes of Kedron or Jehoshaphat observe that the land is 
still rich. There are cows away down in the valley and 
the bees are buzzing on the cacti and wild flowers on the 
slopes. In some favoured spots the Holy Land is still 
one of milk and honey. The villages near Jerusalem 
have dairies which supply excellent butter, and the 
honey, which is largely made of orange blossoms, is de- 
licious. It is served every day at all the hotels, usually 
in the liquid form rather than in the comb. 

The slopes of the Valley of Jehoshaphat are now spotted 

44 



The houses of Jerusalem are of limestone with flat roofs constructed to 
catch the rain water. The better houses have little domes on them 




The Mount of Olives is climbed by walled and winding roads and 
marked with many churches and chapels. Here Jesus often walked with 
His disciples, and here He brooded over the city that rejected Him 




The Holy City is a beautifully framed picture when viewed from a 
bell tower on the Mount of Olives. Across the foreground stretches the 
wall of the inclosure of the Mosque of Omar 



AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY 



with red. Thousands of poppies and anemones grow 
upon the ridges between the gardens, and the peasants 
are working the crops. They use plenty of fertilizer and, 
strange to say, most of that which comes from the city 
is taken out through the Dung Gate. It may be from 
this that it got its name. It is a great square hole in 
the wall just large enough for men and beasts to pass in 
and out. It is not far from the temple platform and 
within a stone's throw of the Jews' wailing place. 

The southeastern corner of the walls of Jerusalem, and, 
indeed, a large portion of the eastern walls, are a part of 
the plateau upon which Solomon's Temple once stood. 
In almost the middle of the eastern side of the temple 
is what is known as the Golden Gate, through which 
Christ is said to have made his entry into Jerusalem on 
Palm Sunday. It has been walled up and the Mohamme- 
dans say that it will not be opened until the Judgment 
Day. A little farther on, at the corner of the temple, 
is St. Stephen's Gate, which some say was the place 
where St. Stephen was stoned. Another legend is that 
the place of the stoning was near the Grotto of Jeremiah, 
in Solomon's quarries, farther along around the walls. 
The tradition is that Stephen was here brought to the 
brow of the hill and thrown over a precipice. His hands 
were tied, and after he had fallen heavy blocks of stone 
were rolled down upon him from the brow of the hill. 

The walls near the Temple are among the first that 
were built. They are in fine condition to-day, parts of 
them having been recently repaired. The stones are of 
bright yellow limestone laid in white mortar. Those at 
the bottom, which were laid up by Solomon, are of 
enormous size, one being about fifty feet long and about 

45 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



fifteen feet high and evidently cut from the bed rock 
upon which the wall stands. 

Right at the Temple the walls rise almost precipi- 
tously from the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I judge they 
are one hundred feet high. They are in excellent condi- 
tion throughout. The towers are almost perfect, and, 
although the vegetation is growing in the cracks, most 
of the masonry looks comparatively new. 

A curious feature of the walls of Jerusalem is a stone 
block as big around as a flour barrel which juts out from 
that part above which stands the Mosque of Omar to a 
distance of perhaps fifteen feet. This block or pillar 
hangs right over the rocky Valley of Jehoshaphat. Ac- 
cording to the belief of the Moslems, Mohammed will 
sit astride this pillar at the Day of Judgment, and Christ 
will have His seat on the Mount of Olives on the oppo- 
site side of the valley. There will be a fine wire stretched 
from the pillar across to the mountain, and upon this 
wire all mankind must walk on its way to eternity. As 
the people of the various religions go those who believe 
in Mohammedanism will be upheld by the angels and 
will reach safely the opposite side, whence they will 
ascend into Heaven. The others will drop down into 
the valley and perish. 

There are cemeteries for both the Jews and the Mo- 
hammedans outside the walls and not far from the 
Mosque. The Mohammedan cemetery, which lies close to 
the walls, is just opposite the Garden of Gethsemane and 
includes the Place of the Skull where General Gordon 
located the site of Calvary. This site is now surrounded 
by a wall and fence, and Christians are not permitted 
to enter it. Within it is the grotto where Jeremiah is 

46 



AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY 

said to have written his Lamentations, and not far away, 
near the Damascus Gate, are Solomon's quarries. 

Our walk has brought us back once more to the Jaffa 
Gate, where we join a pilgrim-throng entering the Holy 
City. 



47 



CHAPTER VIII 



"the tribes of god go thither" 

Jerusalem a city is 
Compactly built together; 
Unto this place the tribes go up 
The tribes of God go thither. 

THE Holy Land is hallowed ground for three great 
religions of the world. Jews, Moslems, Chris- 
tians — all of them worshippers of only one god — 
do reverence at its shrines. Jerusalem is the pil- 
grimage city of the world. Sacred to the Christians, the 
centre of Jewish religious devotion and national dreams, 
it is also a second Mecca to the Mohammedans. The 
Moslems locate the judgment seat upon the walls sur- 
rounding the Mosque of Omar, which stands on the site 
of Solomon's great temple. They make their pilgrimages 
from all parts of the Mohammedan world to worship at 
this mosque, and prostrate themselves before the sacred 
rock within it as they do before the holy black stone of 
Mecca. The prophet Mohammed himself said that Je- 
rusalem was the holiest place in the world, and that one 
prayer here was worth a thousand elsewhere. 

The Christians of the Eastern churches are brought 
up in much the same faith. They believe that the pray- 
ers said within the walls of the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre at the foot of Mount Calvary have a wonder- 
ful efficacy, and they gather in Jerusalem every Easter 
by the tens of thousands. From the wilds of Abyssinia, 



Lepers beg at the gates of Jerusalem, under the walls of great stone blocks 
finely joined together 




Down the hill from under the walls of Jerusalem goes the road to Jaffa and 
the sea; to the right is the way to Bethlehem 



"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER" 



from the flat plains of Egypt, from the mountain fastnesses 
of Greece, and from all over Russia, even to the borders 
of Siberia, they come to drop their tears upon the tomb, 
and to live over the terrible events of Passion Week. 
They come from all parts of Asia Minor, and the Syrians 
and the Armenians jostle the Copts and the Arabians on 
their way to prayers. 

In recent years Latin pilgrimages from western Europe 
and America have been increasing. Bands of Christians 
come from Italy, France, Spain, and the United States. 
I was in Jerusalem when the first pilgrimage was made 
by a body of Christians from America to the Holy City. 
More than one hundred men and women from all sec- 
tions of the United States, under the leadership of the 
Bishop of Tennessee, took part in the Latin celebrations 
in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Many of these pilgrims are extremely superstitious. 
Most of them believe that every spot pointed out by the 
monks is the actual locality of the event alleged to have 
occurred there. They walk over the Holy Land with 
staffs in their hands, and kneel down and kiss the places 
where they believe Jesus trod. They even kiss the stones 
of the streets of Jerusalem, forgetting or not knowing 
that there have been three or four Jerusalems buried 
below the site of the present one. 

I have seen pilgrims crawling on their knees through 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Creeping into the 
vestibule, they kiss the Stone of Unction upon which it 
is claimed the body of Christ was anointed for burial. 

Near the Stone of Unction is the spot on which it is 
said the Virgin Mary stood while Christ was on the cross. 
It also is worn away by kissing. Going on into the 

49 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

great rotunda and turning to the right we reach a church 
belonging to the Greeks at the front of which stands a 
column as high as a chair and about as big. around as a 
four-gallon crock. This is the centre of the world, and 
is honoured as such. I saw Russian peasant girls kissing 
it, and farther on observed them kissing holy place after 
holy place until it. seemed to me that their lips must wear 
out. Kisses are pressed upon these spots by thousands 
of mouths every day, and if every lip leaves its mi- 
crobes all the diseases of the world must be in the bacteria 
here. 

It is hard to estimate the value of the offerings the 
pilgrims lay on these shrines. Those who come are of 
all classes, and some bring the savings of years. The 
poor lay their pennies in the hands of the priests and 
drop them in the slot boxes which may be seen at al- 
most every corner. There is much gold, and there are 
treasures in precious stones. A life-sized image of the 
Virgin Mary which I saw in the Greek church was cov- 
ered with diamonds. The image was made of wax, and 
was dressed in satins and silks. Its face was painted. 
An oval pearl as big as the end of my thumb hung on the 
forehead, while on the waxen fingers were a score or 
more rings. Some of the rings were set with diamonds, 
some with sapphires and rubies, and others with opals. 
Opals in Palestine are looked upon as the sign of good 
luck and not bad, as with us. 

Most of the rings were costly and each was presented 
to the Virgin as a love offering. On the silken lap of the 
image lay a great golden heart as thick as my fist and 
about six inches in width. It was studded with emeralds 
and diamonds. The heart was a present from Franz 

50 



"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER" 

Josef, Emperor of Austria, who made many costly 
gifts to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the grotto 
of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is a similar 
statue, even more gorgeously decorated, although some 
of the jewels are said to be paste. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a hotbed of su- 
perstition. It is supposed to stand on the spot where 
Christ was crucified. The Bible tells us that this was 
outside Jerusalem, but the Church of the Sepulchre is 
to-day far within the walls. This, however, is not a 
proof that the location is incorrect, for the walls of Je- 
rusalem have been thrown down and rebuilt again and 
again, especially those on Mount Zion where the great 
church stands. The hill where Christ was crucified was 
made up of terraces of rock, and that is the nature of the 
foundation of this church. The place was located by 
St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who 
came here about three hundred years after Christ died, 
and found what was said to be the true cross among the 
rubbish on the side of the hill. She had the cross dug 
out and carried to Constantinople, whence later on some 
pieces of it were sent to Rome. One section as long as 
your arm is said to be in Jerusalem, and there are so many 
other pieces scattered over the world that I venture you 
could build a house with them. 

Shortly after this discovery, a church was erected on 
the spot, and since then others have been built, de- 
stroyed, and rebuilt, until we now have this great edifice 
which covers, I should say, an area of several acres. It 
is surmounted by a cross rising from a dome as big as that 
of our National Capitol. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not beautiful and its 

5i 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

position in the heart of Jerusalem, surrounded by bazaars, 
convents, monasteries, and hotels, is by no means im- 
posing. The front of it is covered with carvings, some 
of which are from ancient temples, and over the doors 
are bas-reliefs of scenes from the Bible. One of these 
represents the raising of Lazarus, with the Saviour standing 
at the front and Mary at His feet. At the command of 
Christ, Lazarus is seen rising from the dead, while in the 
background are spectators, some of whom are holding their 
noses as an evidence, perhaps, of the corruption which 
had begun to take place before Lazarus was brought to life. 

Under the dome of the church lies the tomb of the 
Saviour. It is enclosed in a chapel of an ivory-white mar- 
ble, which stands in the centre of the rotunda. This 
chapel is perhaps twenty feet high, twenty-six feet long, 
and seventeen feet wide. Entering through a door so 
low that you have to stoop to go in, you finally come 
into a chamber six feet square and lighted only by can- 
dles. This is the alleged tomb of the Saviour. Over it 
is a marble slab covered with glass to keep the kisses of 
the pilgrims from wearing the stone. There are always 
priests here, and all who come in are sprinkled with holy 
water. Every worshipper brings with him rosaries, 
beads, and holy pictures which are laid upon the tomb 
to be blessed. I saw one old woman totter in with a 
half bushel bag full of rosaries on her back; a frowsy- 
bearded man came with her, bearing all he could carry. 
Spreading these out on the slab, they knelt, while the 
priest sprinkled the beads and gave them his blessing. 
Before leaving they dropped some coins into his hand. 
They were Russians and will probably carry these ro- 
saries back home to their friends. 

52 



The modern American oil can competes with the ancient water bottle. 
The small boy scorns, like his father, to be seen carrying a little water at 
a time, though he may proudly stagger along with a heavy skin holding 
several gallons 



These Russian pilgrims carry their food and cooking utensils with 
them. Undismayed by poverty and difficulties they press on upheld by 
their unquestioning faith 




A donkey ambulance is provided in case a pilgrim falls ill on the march 

"GOING UP TO JERUSALEM*' 



"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER" 

For years more Russians have made the pilgrimage 
to the Holy Land than almost any other people on the 
globe. Fifty or sixty thousand of them come here every 
season. They are brought in by the shipload at Easter 
time and during the whole spring bodies of pilgrims can 
be seen going on foot from shrine to shrine throughout 
Palestine. 

Many of the pilgrims land at Haifa, the most northern 
port of the country. From there they walk over the 
mountains of Galilee, stopping at Nazareth and then 
going on to Tiberius. They stop and pray at every holy 
spot and often kiss the ground where they think Jesus 
or the saints have trod. From the Sea of Galilee they 
make their way back to Nazareth, and thence go across 
the plain of Esdraelon and through Samaria to Jerusalem. 
I have seen thousands of them at Bethlehem and have 
met them tramping the weary road to the Dead Sea and 
the Jordan. 

These Russians belong to the Greek Church, which owns 
most of the monasteries and convents of this country, and 
which has, all told, property amounting to millions, 
including some of the best real estate in Jerusalem. 
It has a great hospice outside the walls of Jerusalem as 
well as a magnificent church on top of the Mount of 
Olives. It has other similar institutions elsewhere, and 
is a great factor in the religious life of the Holy Land. 

The Russians have here what is perhaps the largest 
hotel of the world. Ten thousand people can sleep there 
in a single night, and it has, besides, separate buildings 
for families. It is known as the Russian Hospice and 
lies at the west outside the city wall. It covers a space 
of ten acres or more and has a high wall about it. 

53 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Entering the gates of this hospice, one finds himself 
surrounded by Russians and Russian scenes. It is a 
slice of the land of the White Bear dropped down in 
Judea. There is nothing Syrian in sight. The men dress 
in caps, long coats, and trousers tucked into high boots. 
They are long-bearded, long-haired, and fair-faced. There 
are many red heads among them and none seems to know 
of the razor. The women are clad in coarse gowns 
ending at six inches or more from the ankle. Most of 
them wear boots, but some wear straw shoes, and wrap 
cloths around their legs in place of stockings. They have 
handkerchiefs tied about their heads, and their features 
are usually as hard and rough as those of the men. 

But suppose we go into the women's quarters of this 
mighty hotel. The building is cut up into stalls which 
run from one side of it to the other. These tunnel-like 
rooms are lighted at the end, and standing in a central 
hall it seems as though the windows were at least two 
hundred feet distant. Each vault, which is eight feet 
wide and fifteen feet high, is filled from end to end with 
rough bunks of pine boards. Upon the boards is straw 
matting, and a space six feet square forms the bed and 
home of each woman. At the back of this she piles up 
the bread, tea, and other belongings she has brought with 
her from Russia. She sleeps stretched out on the board 
in the clothing she wears in the daytime. The quarters 
devoted to the men are of similar nature while those for 
the families differ only in that the spaces are larger. 

These pilgrims bring their bread and tea with them 
from Russia. In addition to this they have a few vege- 
tables which they buy of the natives. They cook with 
oil stoves. When on the march each carries some bread 

54 



"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER" 

along with her and a pan out of which to drink and in 
which to make tea. 

In some parts of the inclosure we can see families at 
their meals. The men, women, and children sit on the 
ground around a pot of soup. Each has his own piece of 
bread and a spoon. They wash their own clothes, using 
dishpans as tubs. The pans are as big as a bicycle 
wheel and four inches deep. The washing is done with 
cold water, which is free in the hospice, but which outside 
would cost two cents a gallon. 

These Russian pilgrims are very religious. They are 
mostly poor, and many have been saving a lifetime in 
order that they might make this tour to the Holy Land. 
They undergo all sorts of hardships and spend their 
time in fasting and prayer. They have a church inside 
the hospice where services are held twice a day. I have 
attended the church several times. It is always full of 
people standing or kneeling. They cross themselves again 
and again as the service goes on, and now and then get 
down and bow their heads to the floor. There are simi- 
lar services in the other Greek churches. I attended one 
on the Mount of Olives where the reading of the Scrip- 
tures and the singing were done by Russian nuns dressed 
in black with stove-pipe hats without brims crowning 
their heads. The hats ended in a cape or veil which fell 
down the back. The faces of the nuns were uncovered 
and spiritual looking. Their singing was exceedingly 
sweet, and the service was impressive. The pilgrims 
who listened knelt and now and then kissed the bare 
floor. 

At Easter time the water of the River Jordan is blessed 
by the high priest of the Church, and there are many priests 

55 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

to baptize the Faithful in the sacred river. The women 
and men dress in white garments and go into the water 
together. They change their clothes on the shore. The 
garments they wear in the water are usually shrouds, 
which they have brought from home with them for this 
purpose, and which they intend to take back to be used 
at their burials. 

The scenes of these ''baptisms make one think of a 
picnic. The men, women, and children rush about, some 
laughing and screaming, and others quietly talking. The 
priests dip each three times in the Jordan, giving their 
blessing as they do so. After baptism some soak other 
shrouds in the river to consecrate them that they may 
carry them home to their friends. They also drink of 
the dirty water and bottle it up to take home. Some of 
the pilgrims are old and have to be lifted in and out of 
the river. The current is swift, and frequently men are 
drowned. 



56 



CHAPTER IX 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 

1WANT to take you this morning to the summit of 
Mount Moriah and show you the site of Solomon's 
Temple. It is on the same spot where Abraham, at 
the command of the Lord, was about to sacrifice his 
only son, Isaac, when he was told to desist and shown 
the ram with its horns caught in the thicket behind 
him. It is the place where the wisdom of the boy Christ 
astonished the wise men; where David, Solomon, and 
Elijah used to pray, and where, according to the Mo- 
hammedans, the blast of the trumpet will sound forth 
at the Day of Judgment. The spot is sacred to both 
Christians and Moslems. Indeed, it may be called the 
holiest on the face of the globe. 

The geologists say that Mount Moriah is one of the 
two oldest parts of the world, the other being Mount 
Sinai, upon which Moses received the Ten Command- 
ments. They prove this by the rocks, saying that when 
the world was thrown off by the sun and floated about 
in its nebulous state through the air the parts which 
first solidified were the summit of Sinai and the rock which 
now stands inside the mosque on the top of Moriah. 
There is also a Jewish tradition that as the Lord saw the 
solid earth rising out of chaos He blessed these two 
spots and said: 

"They shall be great in the history of the human 

57 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



race, which I shall create, and upon one of them shall 
my holy city be built. " 

Mount Moriah is on the eastern edge of Jerusalem 
proper. It is just opposite the Mount of Olives and 
above the Garden of Gethsemane across the Valley of 
Jehoshaphat. Its top is a plateau containing thirty-five 
acres, or about one seventh of the whole of Jerusalem, 
inside the walls. The walls partially bound this plateau, 
and in them at the northeast corner of the city is the gate 
through which St. Stephen is said to have passed when 
he was stoned to death by the Jews. Across from the 
plateau and far down below it is the Jews' wailing 
place. Hugging it on the west, south, and north are 
the box-shaped limestone houses which form the greater 
part of Jerusalem. 

In going to it we leave our hotel on Mount Zion and 
make our way down David Street through a horde of 
pilgrims of all colours and races. We pass the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, go through a bazaar where men 
and women, sitting on the ground, are selling glass brace- 
lets and beads from Hebron, past shops selling candles 
to be burnt at the tomb of our Saviour, and on through a 
vaulted tunnel-like street which was once the cotton 
bazaar, but which now sells everything else. Ascending 
a stairway at the end of this tunnel, we find ourselves 
on the plateau now occupied by the Mosque of Omar, 
but formerly the site of the Temple of Solomon. 

This plateau rises in terraces. We come first on to the 
level, which was known as the Court of the Gentiles, 
and was open to Jew and Gentile alike. From this we 
go up to the Court of the Israelites and then to the Court 
of the Priests, which is now under the great Mosque of 

58 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 

Omar. In the latter court stood the open-air altar for 
burnt offerings, the very rock upon which Abraham tied 
Isaac when he was about to sacrifice him in obedience 
to the Lord's command. 

The great flat rock on the summit of Mount Moriah 
over which the dome of the Mosque of Omar now rises 
was the ancient threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite. 
In many parts of Palestine to-day a flat rock or a hard 
piece of ground is selected as a threshing-floor upon which 
the ripe grain is laid down to be trodden out by cattle 
or mules. David purchased this particular floor from 
Oman as an offering to the Lord so that the people 
might be freed from a terrible pestilence then raging in 
Jerusalem. The Bible account continues: "Then David 
said, This is the house of the Lord God and this is the 
altar of the burnt offering for Israel." And right away 
he began preparations for the temple which was actually 
built on this spot by his son Solomon. 

The Moslems have their own tradition regarding this 
rock. Since ancient times it has been the custom in the 
Holy Land to bring the harvested grain to the commun- 
ity threshing-floor, which is soon walled with toppling 
piles of sheaves, each pile belonging to a different farmer. 
The owners of the wheat sleep on the threshing-floor at 
night so as to keep watch over their property. Ac- 
cording to the Mohammedan story, two brothers, one 
married, the other a bachelor, lay down to sleep beside 
their respective piles. The married brother, waking in 
the night, began to think how much grain he had and 
then of his brother's lot compared with his own. 

"Poor fellow," said the married man, "he has no wife 
and children to comfort him and make his life happy. 

59 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



To even things up a little I will slip over and add some 
of my sheaves to his and he will never know I have 
given them to him." 

This he did, and then fell fast asleep again. 

A little later the bachelor brother woke and thought 
of his great stacks of grain and how he, being unmarried, 
needed so much less than his brother. 

"Poor fellow/' thought he, "I who am free have much 
more than I need, I will give him some of my grain 
while he sleeps, for he would never take it from me if 
he knew I was giving it." 

So he transferred a generous portion of wheat from 
his heap to his brother's. 

In the morning both were astonished to find their 
piles exactly the same size as they had been the night 
before. Then a prophet appeared to them and told them 
what had passed in the night. He said that God, who 
had seen and approved the evidences of their brotherly 
kindness, had decided to make this threshing-floor the 
place of prayer for the whole world. 

Directly under the plateau on which Solomon's Temple 
stood is a great catacomb, which once formed a part of 
one of the Jerusalems of the past. Let us first visit 
these underground caves before going into the mosque. 
Descending the steps, we come into a wilderness of 
vaults with roofs upheld by pillars and arches of stone. 
Some of the stone blocks are of enormous size. I have 
measured one which is eight feet wide and fifteen feet 
high. These stones are beautifully laid. They are 
closely joined and show mechanical ingenuity in their 
construction. The pillars are about four feet square, 
and some of them have holes bored through the corners. 

60 





Priests of the Greek Church bless the waters of the Jordan at Easter, 
when hundreds of pilgrims bathe in the river, many of them clad in their 
burial shrouds. Across the Jordan Joshua led his hosts dry-shod to the 
assault on Jericho 



Sturdy character shows in the faces of these Russian women, who 
patiently trudge from shrine to shrine. The Russians are perhaps the 
most devout of all the thousands of pilgrims who come to the Land of 
Christ 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 

It is claimed that the vaults were constructed by Solo- 
mon for his stables, and that the holes in the columns 
were the tying places for the horses. In some of them 
are stone mangers, which the guides say were used long 
ago. Others claim that this stable story is a fiction, 
and that the excavations were made in erecting the 
Temple and the great columns put up to sustain its 
platform. However that may be, the architecture is 
wonderful for that time, or, indeed, for our own. There 
are altogether a hundred or more vaults, and the mighty 
stones which wall them are so heavy that it would be 
impossible to handle them nowadays without the use 
of machinery. 

Since the site of Solomon's Temple is now a Moham- 
medan shrine, and under their control, Christians can- 
not visit this place unless they first obtain an official 
permit. This I obtained through our American consul, 
who not only arranged for a soldier to escort us, but sent 
along his chief kavass, so that we have two guards with 
us as we walk about. The kavass is a sort of major- 
domo of the consul. He has two of them, tall, straight 
Syrians attired more gorgeously than Solomon in all 
his glory. They wear vests covered with bands of gold 
embroidery, with long, flowing sleeves like those of the 
ladies of the Middle Ages. They wear big, baggy trous- 
ers, each pair of which would make two full suits for a 
fat man. They have enormous scimitar-like swords at 
their sides and carry ebony staffs as thick as the handle 
of a baseball bat topped with great knobs of silver as 
big as your fist. The United States Government fur- 
nishes the outfits, except for the swords. Formerly, 
whenever our consul came out of the cavernous region 

61 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

of his hotel or walked down the narrow stone stairs of 
his office, these two gaudy officials preceded him, making 
the pavements ring with their staffs as they cleared his 
path. When he stepped across the way to church, 
though the streets were deserted and a baby might go 
about without danger, a kavass always went with him 
and waited outside the building until His Excellency 
was ready to return. Such extreme pomp as this has, 
however, begun to go out of style, though the consul 
still has his strikingly garbed kavasses to lend the dignity 
expected of Uncle Sam's representatives. 

The Mosque of Omar was supposed by the Crusaders 
to be Solomon's Temple. This is not so, of course, as 
the original building was destroyed long before their 
time. It is now believed to have been built by a Moslem 
governor in the seventh century. But before that, and 
soon after Jerusalem was destroyed in the first century 
after Christ, the Roman Emperor Hadrian is known to 
have built on this site a temple to Jupiter. It is believed 
that some of the pillars in the present mosque came from a 
church erected on Mount Zion by the Christian Emperor 
Justinian. The mosque is one of the finest specimens 
of Byzantine architecture. 

Imagine a mighty dome of greenish copper on the top 
of which is a golden crescent. Let this be as large as 
or larger than that of the Capitol at Washington, and 
let it rest upon a vast octagonal temple walled with tiles 
so fine that any one of them would be prized as a piece 
of rare china. Let there be a dado of marble below 
the tiles and a wide frieze above them inlaid with texts 
from the Koran in Arabic characters, and let the whole 
be entered by mighty doors over which are beautifully 

62 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 



carved arches, and you have a faint idea of the Dome of 
the Rock, another name by which this mosque is known. 

Here may be seen striking evidences of the belief of 
the Mohammedans as to Christ and the prophets. They 
believe in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and class Jesus as 
one of the prophets, although not so high as Mohammed. 
Among the verses of the Koran on the front of the 
mosque is one reading: 

The Messiah, Jesus, is only the son of Mary, the Ambassador of 
God, and His word which He deposited in Mary. Believe, then, in 
God and His Ambassador, and do not maintain that in one there are 
three. 

Another reads: 

Blessings be on me in the day of my birth and my death. He h 
Jesus, the Son of Mary, the word of truth, concerning whom some are 
in doubt. 

There are other passages of the Koran which tell the 
stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Moham- 
medans reverence this spot in connection with them. 

Let us take off our shoes and go in. The floor of the 
mosque is holy ground, so none is permitted to enter 
except in his stockings or bare feet. The inside is even 
more beautiful than the outside. The walls and roofs 
are a mass of carvings and mosaics. The mosaic is 
made up of bits of gold and glass, the latter of many 
colours, all so delicately put together that they form 
beautiful pictures. Each bit is only as big as the head 
of a nail, or smaller, and thousands of them are required 
to make a single picture. The columns upholding the 
roof are of marble, and the floor is of marble carpeted 
with old rugs from Turkey and Persia. 

63 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



Right in the centre of the mosque is the huge rock 
upon which Abraham built his altar for Isaac, and upon 
which Oman's cattle threshed his grain, and where, the 
Mohammedans say, the Angel Gabriel will stand when 
he blows the last trump calling the people to judgment. 
At that time, according to Moslem belief, the souls of the 
human race will rush to this spot and present themselves 
before Mohammed and Christ, who will pass on their 
virtues and sins. After that all must go to the Pillar of 
Judgment and cross on the wire rope to the Mount of 
Olives. According to another Mohammedan story, the 
Moslems will be turned into fleas, and Mohammed him- 
self into a sheep, in which form he will ascend to heaven 
with the faithful fleas in his wool. 

The rock is esteemed sacred by every Mohammedan. 
It is surrounded by an iron stockade which none is al- 
lowed to enter. It is about forty feet long and sixty 
feet wide, and rises some six feet out of the floor. It 
fills the whole inclosure and comes so close to the fence 
that one can touch it, or, if he is devout, as are most of 
the worshippers we see in the mosque, he can put his 
mouth through the bars and impress a kiss upon it. 

As we walk about the fence examining the rock our 
turbaned guide shows us its wonders. "Here," says he, 
pointing to a round hole in one of the sides, "is the 
mark of Mohammed's heel. It was from that spot that 
the holy Prophet ascended to heaven, and as he rose the 
rock started to go up with him holding fast to his heel. 
The Angel Gabriel had to put his hand upon it to keep 
it down, and here," pointing to five curious marks, "are 
the places where Gabriel's fingers rested when he did so." 

A little farther on the guide tells us that this rock is 

64 



9 

i 




.Moslem pilgrims pray at the .Mosque of Omar, which occupies the 
site of Solomon's Temple. It is said that no faithful Jew will enter its 
mclosure, for fear of treading on the spot where once was the Holy of 
Holies 



Every Friday devout Jews weep under the walls of the Mosque of 
Omar, mourning the loss of their temple. They repeat for hours their 
litany: "For the temple that is desolate. . . . We sit in solitude and 
mourn" 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 

the centre of the earth, and that some believe it to be 
the gate of hell. He shows us a plate of jasper as big 
as a checker board, in which are three golden nails, saying 
that the plate originally contained nineteen nails which 
Mohammed had driven into it. One nail drops out at 
the end of each age of the Moslem cycle, and when the 
last nail is gone the end of the world will occur. The 
guide offers to let me pull out the last three nails for a 
dollar apiece, but I have no desire to hasten the Judg- 
ment Day, and therefore refuse. In that way I save 
the world. 

"The devil got at this plate one day," so our consular 
kavass tells me, "and was jerking out the nails at a great 
rate when the Angel Gabriel caught him and pulled him 
away." 

These stories are silly, but they are only a few of many 
which are told us when we are inside the mosque. Never- 
theless, the average Mohammedan of this side of the world 
believes them, and we see bearded, gowned, and tur- 
baned men and white-sheeted, veiled women praying 
over these holy places. They kiss the marks of Mo- 
hammed's footprints and run their handkerchiefs and 
beads over the rock. They pray as they do so, for the 
Prophet said that one prayer here is worth a thousand 
uttered anywhere else, and he prayed here himself. 

The greatest interest of Mount Moriah, however, arises 
from the fact that we know this was the actual site of 
Solomon's Temple as well as that of the two other Jew- 
ish temples which succeeded it. The first house of God 
erected by the Israelites was the Tabernacle. This was 
constructed at the direction of Moses just after he had 
received the Commandments. It is said to have been 

65 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

just about half the size of the Temple of Solomon, al- 
though there are passages in the Scriptures which lead 
us to think the latter must have been very much larger. 
The Tabernacle was a movable building. It was about 
fifty feet long and sixteen or seventeen feet wide. The 
roof and walls were formed of curtains made of linen or 
wool beautifully sewed and fastened in places with gold 
buckles. There were also curtains of goat's hair and of 
ram's wool dyed red. Some suppose the roof of the 
Tabernacle to have been flat, and others that it was 
ridged like a tent, with a cube inside about sixteen feet 
square, which was the Holy of Holies. In the latter 
were the Ark of the Covenant and the Tables of the Law. 

Solomon's Temple was planned by David, who col- 
lected much of the material used. Solomon himself 
made a bargain with Hiram, King of Tyre, to aid him 
in supplying the timber and certain classes of the me- 
chanics. Hiram was a Phoenician king who lived up 
the coast and who controlled the forests of Lebanon. 
He gave Solomon a concession of certain tracts of cedar 
and fir, and the Hebrew king sent men in parties of 
ten thousand each to go to the mountains and cut down 
the trees. The servants of Hiram helped them, and 
they carried the lumber to the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean and floated it down to Jaffa, whence it was 
brought up to Jerusalem. The Bible says that Solomon 
gave King Hiram every year two thousand measures of 
wheat and twenty measures of oil as his part of the con- 
tract, and that the two kings were associated together. 

The first temple was begun by Solomon more than 
twenty-nine hundred years ago, and it took seven years 
to build it. I have translated some of its dimensions 

66 



ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 

into feet. The cubit, which was then the unit of meas- 
urement, was as long as the distance from a man's elbow 
to the tip of his middle finger, and varied from eighteen 
to twenty-one inches. Putting the cubit at twenty 
inches the ground plan of the Temple was sixty-six feet 
wide and one hundred and thirty-three feet long, and 
according to some statements its height was fifty feet, 
although one of the roofs rose eight feet and the other 
sixteen above the inside walls. There is another place 
in the Bible in which it is stated that the height of the 
porch was one hundred and twenty cubits, which would 
make it two hundred feet high. 

The Temple of Solomon had disappeared long before 
Christ was born. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, 
596 b. c, and a new building was not erected until the 
Jews came back from their captivity at Babylon. This 
was also destroyed many years later and a third and 
last temple was erected by Herod the Great eighteen 
years before Christ. In that temple occurred the scenes 
of Christ's ministry. It was there that He talked with 
the priests as a boy of twelve, and from there He drove 
out the money changers. 

The Temple of Herod is said to have been much finer 
than Solomon's. It has been described by Josephus, 
who probably had a ground plan of the building before 
him when he wrote. He says that the space it covered 
was about twice as large as that of the old temple. It 
was of much the same style as the Temple of Solomon, 
but its approaches were more imposing, and it doubtless 
displayed all the architectural beauties of the time, which 
was one of magnificent buildings. 



67 



CHAPTER X 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

TH E Jews are rapidly coming into their own. The 
Holy City now contains some thirty thousand of 
them ; they form about half of its whole popula- 
tion. They have acquired the right to own 
land in Palestine, and they can come and go as they 
please. This has not always been the case. Jewish im- 
migration used to be prohibited, and such Jews as bought 
real estate had to purchase and hold it under other 
names. 

Until the last decade of the nineteenth century the 
Turkish Government had a rule that no Jew might come 
into Palestine and stay there longer than three weeks. 
The restrictions were given up largely through the ac- 
tivities of Mr. Gilman, a former American consul to 
Jerusalem. When he came to the Holy City it was 
the policy of the representatives of the other foreign 
governments there to aid the Turkish authorities in ex- 
pelling immigrant Jews. Shortly after his arrival he 
was advised by the Sultan's officials that some American 
Jews were overstaying their time in the Holy Land and 
was requested to direct them to leave. He replied that 
such action was entirely contrary to the spirit of our 
government which is founded on religious toleration and 
freedom, and after some negotiations the American Jews 
were allowed to remain. Soon after this the British 

68 



Christian sects may quarrel over their holy places, Jews may clamour 
for their national home in Palestine, while the Arabs proclaim that the 
land is theirs. Neither politics nor religion disturbs this maid of mod- 
ern Jerusalem 



Snow is almost unknown in these grass-grown vaulted streets, beneath 
which* lie buried the ruins of the Jerusalems of the past. The streets 
Christ trod are twenty to eighty feet below the city of to-day 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

consul, acting under instructions from the British . 
minister at Constantinople, took the same stand, and 
the other leading governments followed suit. Seventy- 
five years ago there were only thirty-two Jewish families 
in all Jerusalem and only three thousand in all Pales- 
tine. 

Now there are sixty-odd thousand in the Holy Land 
and, as I have said, Jews make up half the population 
of the Holy City. The Jews here are now engaging in 
trade, and already control a large part of the business 
of Jerusalem. 

Forty different languages are spoken among the Jews 
of Palestine, and there are many who cannot understand 
one another. In the main there are three separate classes : 
First is the Ashkenazim, made up of Jews from Russia, 
Poland, Austria, and Germany. These people are much 
like the lower-class Jews of America, and their common 
language is Yiddish. The second class is the Sephardim. 
They are Spanish Jews, descendants of those who came 
here centuries ago. These Jews speak a mixture of 
Spanish and Hebrew. The third class is the Eastern 
Jews, made up of Israelites from Syria, Persia, Arabia, 
and Central Asia. They speak Arabic and look much 
like Moslems. 

The American Jews are comparatively few, and it is 
seldom that you meet one born in the United States. 
Those who claim to be American citizens are chiefly 
natives who have gone to the United States to get 
naturalization papers, and then returned here to live. 
Many of them are frauds, and our consul believes that 
some of them bought their naturalization papers without 
ever leaving Palestine. American citizenship is an es- 

69 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



pecially valuable badge of protection in this part of the 
world. Said our consul to me: 

"Our citizenship has been used to carry on frauds. 
When I first came here I found it serving as a cloak for 
crime. One man who claimed to be an American was 
acting as receiver of stolen cattle, and selling them 
openly. He carried on a big business, and although the 
officials were aware of his criminal practices they could 
not arrest him. This was so because of a difference be- 
tween our government and that of Turkey. 

"The treaties provide that the offences of Americans 
against the Turks may be punished only by the American 
consul, and we contended that this gave us the right of 
trial in such cases. The Turkish Government contended 
that all such offenders must be tried in the Turkish 
courts, and as neither government would give in, it was 
impossible to convict and punish without bringing about 
international complications. As soon as I came I de- 
cided to stop it and told the man I would arrest and 
convict him by means of American witnesses. The re- 
sult was that he did not wait for trial, but skipped out 
of the country." 

Most of the Jews here pride themselves on their piety. 
They think themselves above the Jew who has suffered 
long contamination by mixing with foreigners, and some 
of them especially despise the American. Meeting one 
on the street they may slap him on the stomach and 
sneeringly ask how much pork he ate when he was in 
the United States. In making this statement 1 refer to 
the fanatics who are composed more especially of the 
Spaniards and the members of the Ashkenazim. These 
people have inner circles of religious aristocracy, some 

70 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

of whom are supposed to have magic powers of healing. 
Among them are many men of education and culture, 
men who know the Bible from beginning to end, and who 
speak several languages. One can tell nothing of the 
culture of the Jerusalem Jew by his dress, for a dirty, 
ragged old man is often a great scholar. 

The dress here is about the same among all classes 
of the Israelites. The boys and the men wear coats with- 
out belts which reach from the neck to the feet. They 
are full, and are slightly open at the front, showing gowns 
under them. Many of the Spanish Jews wear black tur- 
bans or velvet caps with a wide fringe of fur outside. 
Some wear broad-brimmed felt hats which come far 
down over the forehead, half hiding the ears. They do 
not shave, for a long beard is a sign of wisdom, dignity, 
and piety. They wear the hair long, with a curly lock 
on each side of the face, in front of the ears. These 
locks often reach down to the breast, and are allowed 
to grow, according to a saying in Scriptures, which reads, 
'Thou must not mar the corners of thy beard." 

Many of the Jews never cut the hair in front of the 
ears for fear of touching the beard, and I see boys with 
the rest of the head shaved and these two earlocks left. 

These Jerusalem Jews have fine faces. Many of them 
have high foreheads, strong noses and mouths, and 
beautiful eyes. Some are fair and others have olive 
complexions . Their hair is of all colours from jet black 
to blond and fiery red, and there are many old men 
with beards of silver. 

Indeed many of the Jews of the Holy City are old 
men and old women who have come here to die. Je- 
rusalem is to many of the Jews what Benares is to the 

7i 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Hindu. They have a superstition that this city is on the 
direct road to heaven and that they must come here in 
order to attain paradise. I am told that many of the 
Jews of this city believe that if they should die in other 
lands they will be dragged under the earth through 
the globe to the Mount of Olives, where the Resurrection 
is to take place. The Jewish cemetery on the side of 
the mountain contains thousands of tombs. It is said 
that soil from that spot is sent all over the world to be 
put in Jewish coffins. Not a few of the old men who live 
here have left their business to come. Some have given 
their estates to their sons and relatives, and receive al- 
lowances from them. Not long ago one such came to 
the American consul, and said that he would like to 
leave some money to found a synagogue in Jerusalem. 
He looked dirty and ragged, and the consul asked what 
he had to leave. He replied that he owned under other 
names six good houses in Jerusalem and that the money 
to buy them had been saved out of an allowance of a 
thousand dollars a year which his sons in New York 
had been sending him. 

The Jews of Jerusalem are far more particular as to 
the observances of their religion than the Jews of America. 
There are more than one hundred synagogues in this 
city, in all of which worship is held on the Sabbath. I 
have attended many of the services and have generally 
found the synagogues full. The men read Hebrew 
aloud. They come in their best clothing, and some of 
the old men are gorgeous in their rich gowns of velvet 
and silk. 

The Sabbath here begins Friday night and does not 
end until six o'clock Saturday. It begins just as soon 

72 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

as the stars can be seen Friday, after which no work of 
any kind must be done. Neither fire nor lamp may be 
lighted, so most of the people light their lamps before 
the dark comes and hire Gentiles to come in at bed- 
time to blow them out. The meals for the Sabbath are 
all cooked beforehand, and if there are any hot dishes 
they must be cooked by the Gentiles. 

The orthodox Jew here will not carry a bucket, an 
umbrella, or even a baby on the Sabbath day. I have 
just heard of a boy who was given a new suit of clothes on 
Saturday, his Sabbath. The gift was made by one of the 
American colony outside the walls, and the people there 
watched to see how the boy could stick to his religion 
and still carry his new clothes home. After pondering 
some time, he finally put the clothes on and wore them, 
thus escaping the sin of carrying them on God's holy day. 

The Jews here have a slaughter house of their own. 
Indeed, they kill all of the cattle of Jerusalem, serving 
the Gentiles free of charge, in order that there may be 
no danger of sinning by eating animals improperly 
killed. The city abattoirs are on the road to Jericho 
across the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the southern slope of 
the Mount of Olives. The cattle and sheep are brought 
there and passed upon by the Jewish rabbis. They are 
then killed and skinned according to the Mosaic law, and 
the meat is stamped by the rabbis before it is offered for 
sale in the cities. A special stamp is placed on all that 
supplied to the Jews, and such meat, strange to say, 
brings about twice as much per pound as that sold to the 
Gentiles. 

If the meat is good to eat it is known as kosher. If 
not killed according to the regulations, it is called tar if , 

73 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



and no Jew will touch it. The killing is done by the 
rabbinical butcher, who cuts the animal's throat with 
one stroke of the knife, going just deep enough not to 
touch the bones. The law provides not only that the 
meat must be healthy, but that no bone must be scratched, 
cut, or broken, and if the butcher's knife slips and cuts 
off a bit of bone, even though it be no thicker than a 
sheet of paper, the whole carcass is regarded as bad 
and fit only for the Gentiles. The Jews eat cattle and 
sheep, but they will not touch the meat of pigs or game. 
Said one of the sportsmen of Palestine to me: 

" If the Jews ate game they would clean out our par- 
tridges and other birds in a season. But as it is, there 
is always good shooting." 

Most of the Jews here will not eat the hind quarters 
of any animal, and the hind legs and loins are sold to 
the Gentiles. The Spanish Jews say that those who eat 
pork will be damned, but they get around eating rump 
steak by pulling out the white sinews or scraping off 
the red particles of the meat and making what we know 
as Salisbury steaks from them. 

The Jewish quarter of Jerusalem is confined to the 
southeastern part of the city. It is near the great plat- 
form on which Solomon's Temple stood and inside the 
Dung Gate. It is a dirty, squalid, poverty-stricken sec- 
tion. Many of the Jews here are mendicants, who live 
on the alms sent in by the Jews from the outside. At 
fixed hours of the day bread is given away at certain 
places and the people come for it in crowds. There are 
funds which are supplied at regular intervals to those who 
need them, and much of the population is supported this 
way. They might be called educated paupers. Many 

74 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

of these people are desperately poor. I visited a number 
of the houses, finding family after family each living in 
cave-like rooms no larger than a hall bedroom and 
lighted only by a door at the front. In such dwellings 
the floors and walls are of stone, and about the only fur- 
niture is the beds, which are for the grown-ups only. 
The children sleep on the floor. The kitchen is often on 
a porch outside the house, and the water comes from a 
court in which is a well or cistern. This well may be 
used by a half-dozen different families, and its surround- 
ings are unsanitary to an extreme. 

On the doorposts of each of these dwellings, whether 
it be of one room or more, is tacked up a roll of white 
parchment six inches long. This contains the name of 
Jehovah and the Ten Commandments. Every Jew here 
wears the Commandments tied upon his arm under his 
coat, and some have phylacteries, or strips of parchment 
with texts upon them, about their foreheads. 

One of the strangest sights of Jerusalem is the Jews' 
wailing place, where every Friday afternoon and Saturday 
morning certain sects meet on the outside of the walls 
of the Mosque of Omar and with their heads bent against 
the stones sorrow over the loss of Jerusalem and pray 
God to give the land back to His chosen people. This 
custom has been observed since the days of the Middle 
Ages and it is one of the saddest of sights. I visited it 
last week. In a narrow alley surrounded by miserable 
houses — on stone flags which have been worn with the 
bare feet of thousands of Jews — against a wall of great 
blocks of marble which reached for fifty or more feet 
about them, a line of men in long gowns and of women 
with head shawls stood with their heads bowed, praying 

75 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



and weeping. Many of the men had white beards and 
the long curly locks which fell down in front of their 
ears were silver. Others were just in their prime. There 
were also young men and young girls. Not a few of the 
male mourners wore European clothes, and I saw one 
woman wailing in a hat and gown of Parisian design. 
Most of the women, however, were dressed in Jewish 
costume with shawls wrapped around their heads. 

Each of the mourners had a book in his hand and read 
the Lamentations of Jeremiah, swaying back and forth as 
he did so. Now and then the whole party broke out into a 
chant, a gray-haired rabbi acting as leader and the rest 
coming in on the refrain. The substance of one of the 
chants was as follows: 

O Lord, we pray thee have mercy on Zion, 
Gather the children of Jerusalem together! 
May the kingdom soon return to Zion! 
Comfort those who mourn over Jerusalem, 
And let the branch of Jesse spring up in Zion! 

Still more affecting was this one: 

Leader — For the palace that lies desolate. 
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn. 
Leader — For our Majesty that is departed. 
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn. 
Leader — For the walls that are destroyed. 
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn. 
Leader — For our great men who lie dead. 
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn. 
Leader — For our priests who have stumbled. 
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn. 

The effect of this chant cannot be appreciated unless 
you hear it. The old men, the weeping women who kiss 

7 6 



Many learned Jews come to end their days in the Holy City. The 
raggedest man may be the greatest scholar. Some of them have returned 
from America whence their successful sons send funds for their support 
in the land of their fathers 



The Tower of David was standing here when Christ walked in Zion. 
Jerusalem, like other ancient cities, was surrounded by walls for its de- 
fence, with towers here and there along their course 



JEWS OF JERUSALEM 

the stones of the wall that separates them from what was 
once the site of Solomon's Temple, and that is even now 
the holiest spot on the earth to the Jew, the genuine 
feeling expressed by all and the faith they show in 
thus coming here week after week and year after year, 
are most wonderfully impressive. It is indeed one of 
the strange sights of this strangest of cities. A nation 
is mourned for. 



77 



CHAPTER XI 



THE EVIL EYE 

THE Evil Eye is abroad in the Holy Land, and a 
glance from it will bring you misfortune. It will 
lame your horse, cow, or camel, and it may cause 
your child to sicken or die. It can ruin your 
health or your business, and it may even send your soul 
to eternal damnation. Those who possess the evil eye 
are devils incarnate, but you cannot tell who they are. 
They go about in the shape of innocent-looking men, 
women, and children, so you will not realize that their 
spells have been cast upon you until misfortune comes. 

The belief exists throughout Palestine and is common 
all over this part of the world. Every house in Jerusalem, 
whether Jew, Moslem, or Christian, contains charms to 
ward off such spells. Every man, woman, and child car- 
ries a talisman to keep off the witches. Some of these 
charms are in the shape of a hand, because of an old 
Jewish saying that the hand of God will arrest all dis- 
asters, and a Mohammedan habit of calling upon the hand 
of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, to guard the 
Faithful from evil. Silver hands are sold as charms, and 
the wealthier classes wear hands of gold inside the necks 
of their gowns. Every Jerusalem house has a painting 
or carving of a hand on its front door to keep off the evil 
eye; and even in the new houses which are now going 
up they are putting hands over the windows as well 

78 



THE EVIL EYE 



as at the front doors. Over their doors hang bags of 
charms containing an egg, a piece of alum, some gariic, 
and a large blue bead. 

Blue is believed to be a colour which frightens the 
devil. These people think that anything blue will ward 
off the evil eye, and for this reason horses, donkeys, 
and camels have strings of blue beads round their necks. 
Every horse and donkey that I have ridden since I set 
foot in the Holy Land has been decorated with beads, 
and in a carriage trip that I recently took across country, 
changing my teams three times, every horse we drove had 
a blue necklace. One was a three-year-old colt, which 
was lively and skittish. He wore several strands of 
blue beads, each as big as the nail of my thumb. As he 
jumped about he broke the string and the beads fell off 
and were lost. The driver went back to look for them, 
but hunted in vain, and was troubled during the rest of 
the day. When toward evening the colt got a stone in 
his foot and went lame, he said it was the evil eye, which 
might have been kept off had the beads not been lost. 

I see many children here wearing blue beads, some of 
which are the shape of an eye. There is one special 
kind made, in Hebron which is considered most effective. 
It is a bead of blue glass of the shape of a hand with five 
fingers. It is worn as a charm. Some of the children 
are clad in blue gowns with white circles stamped on 
them. Every store has some blue inside it, and in some 
a silver hand is hung up on the walls. Every bride 
wears blue beads at her wedding, and in wedding pro- 
cessions salt, rice, and sugar plums are thrown at the bride 
and bridegroom to keep off the evil eye and bring luck. 

I have been warned that I should always have some 

79 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

alum in my pocket, for this is a charm which will keep 
away witches. It is usually carried along with the beads. 
Some beads are made with a small piece of alum inside 
them, and people who are ashamed to show their belief 
in the beads often carry alum in their pockets. If a 
child goes out without charms the mother is greatly 
alarmed, and if she thinks that someone has cast an 
evil eye on it she burns a bit of the child's clothes with 
incense and a small piece of alum. She first prays over 
the child, waving the bit of stuff and the alum about as 
she does so. She then throws the charm into an open fire 
and holds the child over it. As the alum burns it gives 
off a smoke which takes certain shapes, and the mother 
believes that by looking at them she can learn who has 
cast the evil eye on her child. The same rite is gone 
through with by pretty girls who feel ill on coming home 
from a call. They work this charm to find out who has 
cast a spell on them. 

One of the commonest safeguards against the evil eye 
is a text from the Bible or the Koran such as: "Break 
down the spell of the Eye"; or " By the blessings of God." 
These phrases written in Arabic characters are framed 
and hung up in many of the houses. They are also 
carved upon furniture. 

The Jews carry about texts of the Scriptures. The 
Christians have relics of saints, and some of the natives 
here think they have pieces of the true cross. 

It is customary to use the name of God at the begin- 
ning of every sentence which contains the name of one's 
friend. 

The people of Palestine do not like to hear themselves 
complimented unless at the same time you use the name 

80 



The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the centre of superstition in 
Jerusalem, where imagination sets the only limit to stories told to the 
tourists — and implicitly believed by many of them 



The women of the Holy Land are great believers in the power of the 
Evil Eye and wear blue beads and other charms to keep the spirits away. 
Bits of alum, which is supposed to be especially effective, are often worn in 
little bags around the neck 



THE EVIL EYE 



of God. Otherwise they believe such expressions are 
bound to bring misfortunes and possibly troubles and 
death. If you call a boy or a girl pretty its mother's 
heart is filled with terror, and she straightway throws 
out her hand, extending the index and little finger in a 
way supposed to ward off the devil and to prevent the 
evil consequences of your remark. If you wish to praise 
the beauty of a child you must begin the sentence with, 
"May God surround thee." After that you may go on 
as you please. If you pat the child on the head and fail 
to use this sentence, the mother upon returning home 
will take the child into a room and put it in the middle 
of the floor. She will then take a shovel and gather some 
dust from each of the four corners, and throw it into the 
fire, crying: "Fie on thee, evil eye." 

Similar precautions should be taken in admiring a 
horse or a donkey, and there are ways of keeping the evil 
eye away from them. If a man has a spirited horse 
which he fears the people may admire, he carries with 
him some salt. As he rides through the crowds he will 
now and then sprinkle a little salt under the feet of the 
horse, especially if he sees the crowd looking at it. If 
any one asks whether he will sell the animal he must 
answer yes, but if asked what he will take he makes the 
price so high that the man cannot buy. At such times 
he usually requests the would-be purchaser to stop think- 
ing of his horse for fear it may bring misfortune. 

Another superstition regarding salt relates to babies at 
birth. It is sprinkled over their bodies to keep off the 
devil, and is used at all other ceremonies connected with 
children. 

The power of the evil eye is also possessed by spirits 

81 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

who inhabit human beings. The people here believe in 
one class of spirits who live underground but who are 
fed by those on earth. They are said to come up and 
take the wheat from the threshing-floors and the bread 
from the ovens, and the only way to keep them from 
doing so is to utter a sentence from the Koran or Bible 
as you put the bread in to bake, or spread out the grain. 
These same spirits hover about the fire, and if you quench 
it without asking Mohammed to protect you the spirits 
are liable to beat you or perhaps lame you for life. 

These underground spirits are known as the jinn. Their 
favourite place of residence is below the front doorsteps, 
for which reason women are not allowed to sit there. 
The jinn, or genii, are supposed to be an organized body, 
having a sultan, a court, and regular officials. They 
keep guard on the food stores and are on the whole 
fairly good fellows. They are said to be fond of human 
company. It is even whispered that they sometimes as- 
sume human shape and marry mortals. They are be- 
lieved to be most common in Egypt. One may attract 
a jinn by whistling, and it is said that the girls here 
frequently whistle. Some of the men of Palestine are 
jealous of the jinn, thinking they have association with 
their wives, and some will not look at a real woman for 
fear the jinn girls, who they imagine are in love with them, 
will object. 

One of the queer superstitions here in Jerusalem is the 
idea that a marriage in a cemetery will propitiate the 
Lord and cause Him to favour His people. This is be- 
lieved by the native Jews, and several cemetery weddings 
have recently occurred on account of the drought. Pal- 
estine has had no rain for weeks and the crops are drying 

82 



THE EVIL EYE 

up. The people are wildly excited over the prospect. 
There is also an epidemic of infantile paralysis, which 
has been carrying off the children. The people think 
that God is angry with them, and perhaps wroth because 
the graveyard marriages have been too few. To pacify 
Him they have had weddings in the cemeteries, though a 
graveyard is considered a most unlucky place for starting 
upon the life matrimonial. Indeed, it so unlucky that 
brides and grooms have to be hired to get married there. 
At a marriage which took place this week the couple 
received two hundred dollars in gold, besides food for 
two years, as a present for having the ceremony in the 
cemetery. In this case the groom was a Jew from 
Yemen, Arabia, and the bride a Jewess from Aleppo, in 
Syria. The bride was late coming, and the three thou- 
sand worshippers who had assembled to see the ceremony 
had to wait for two hours. She was finally carried in 
under a canopy, and took her stand on one side of an open 
grave while the bridegroom stood on the other. Stand- 
ing thus they exchanged marriage vows. Two more 
cemetery weddings are planned, but it is difficult to get 
willing couples, as such marriages are supposed to be 
disastrous. Nevertheless, the charm seems to be work- 
ing. The wind has changed since the first ceremony 
took place, and it may rain by and by. 



83 



CHAPTER XII 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

AT NO time in the whole year is the Holy City so 
/\ interesting as during Easter Week. Jerusalem 

/ % seems always filled to overflowing, but during 
^ Holy Week it is crowded and jammed with 
people for days and nights on end to a degree that it is 
impossible to describe. 

I had the good fortune to be here during the most 
remarkable Easter that Jerusalem ever had, when by a 
curious coincidence the calendars of the various sects 
fixed the holy feasts on the same days, and the Jewish 
Passover and the Mohammedan festival of Nebu Musa, 
or the pilgrimage from the Mosque of Omar to the tomb 
of Moses, came during Easter Week. These celebrations 
packed the narrow, vaulted, winding streets of Jerusalem 
with a jam of crushed and crushing humanity. They 
filled the monasteries which surround the walls with tens 
of thousands of pilgrims, and clothed the Holy City in 
a greater variety of colours than were in the coat which 
Jacob gave to his favourite son Joseph. 

The walls of Jerusalem enclose an area of not more than 
three hundred acres of ground, made up of hill and hol- 
low, all filled with the flat-roofed box-like houses. There 
is no regularity in the city. The streets wind in and 
out and up and down, now becoming narrow, murky 
tunnels, and now roofed with the blue sky of Palestine. 

84 



Grandfather and grandson — and both are followers of the ancient 
profession of begging. Under Turkish taxation the Palestinians were 
reduced to such dire poverty that asking alms is considered no disgrace 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

They are so narrow that through most of them no wheeled 
vehicle can go, and standing in the middle of many of 
them you can touch the walls on both sides with your 
outstretched hands. It is in such streets that the thou- 
sands move to and fro at Easter. 

I doubt whether there is a town of five hundred pop- 
ulation in the United States which is built upon three 
hundred acres of land. Here there are over one hundred 
times that many people, and the Easter visitors swell 
the number to as many more. During Holy Week the 
bulk of this mass of humanity crowds into the section 
of the city surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre. There seem to be scores of thousands of worship- 
pers in an area less than that of a city block, and the 
two or three narrow streets leading to the sanctuary 
become so crowded that Moslem soldiers must be con- 
stantly on guard to keep them in order. The gay col- 
ours of the clothes of the Orient turn the streets into a 
flowing mass of broken rainbows, and the jabber of a 
score of languages makes a noise quite as remarkable as 
that heard at the Tower of Babel. 

Let me show you David Street as it looked to me the 
day after Palm Sunday. David Street is the narrow way 
leading from Jaffa Gate down into the city. It is about 
ten feet wide, and we go through it into the Christian 
Street, which, by a second turn, brings us to the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. At the top is the Tower of 
David, a square stone structure one hundred feet high, a 
part of which was in existence before the Christian Era. 
In the large square in front of this is the vegetable mar- 
ket of Jerusalem, where pedlars from Bethlehem and 
elsewhere sit on the stones with their baskets about 

85 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

them. Standing with our backs to the tower, as far as 
we can see, we look upon a moving mass of pilgrims 
and natives of all ages and colours and costumes. 

Twenty different nations are represented in the faces 
which look toward us. Here is an Ethiopian priest, in a 
tall black cap and a long black gown, whose black eyes 
are set in features as shiny as oiled ebony. He is one of 
the Abyssinian fathers and has his place in the ceremonies 
at Easter. That mahogany-faced man in a yellow gown 
is a Persian, and the fierce-looking Ishmaelite behind 
him, in a blanket of black-and-white stripes, his bronzed 
face crowned by a yellow silk handkerchief, is a Bedouin ; 
he is of the Moslem faith, and is on his way to wor- 
ship at the mosque. Behind him comes a woman in a 
white sheet. Her features are covered with a yellow 
gauze cloth with red leaves printed upon it; she is the 
wife of a Mohammedan merchant, and her face is not 
to be seen outside the harem. That slender, black- 
eyed girl, with the dark roses in her cheeks, is the daugh- 
ter of a Polish Jew. Her cap is black, and, like all of 
her sisters, she wears a little silk flowered shawl. 

Some of the prettiest women in the world are peddling 
vegetables about you. As you note their complexions 
you can hardly realize that they live under the fierce 
sun of the tropics. Their skins are as fair as the cheeks 
of the girls of Dublin, and their regular features would 
make them beauties in America. They wear high caps 
bound round with silver coins, row after row rising up 
from their foreheads against a background of black 
velvet. 

Here is a crowd of Russian peasants. The honest 
bronzed faces of the women look out under the brown 

86 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

handkerchiefs tied about their heads in place of bonnets, 
and their short dresses of cheap cotton or wool come 
half way down over their high-topped boots. The men 
have tall fur caps, and their coats are made with skirts 
as full as the petticoats of the women. The faces of both 
sexes are strong, with honesty and industry showing in 
every line. They cross themselves as two Greek priests 
pass them. 

Let us push our way through the crowd. That tall 
soldier in red fez and European uniform breaks the 
way for us. We pass good-natured Moslems and Jews; 
we are jostled by Bedouin girls in gypsy dress, and by 
Bethlehem shepherds clad in sheep-skins. Going by the 
market women squatting at the turning, we follow the 
crowd and pass on to the entrance of one of the tunnel- 
like bazaars. Leaving this, we turn into another arch 
at the right, and diving through vaulted, twisting caves 
of stores, we go down some steps, past the money- 
changers, who sit at the street corners with little glass- 
covered boxes of gold and silver coins before them. 
Brushing by dozens of beggars we arrive at last in the 
court in front of the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 
Now we are in the heart of the Jerusalem of Easter. 

This court is where the multitude stood to see the 
crucifixion of our Lord. On the opposite side from the 
entrance, in a corner of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
is the Rock of Calvary, and the buildings which surround 
it are the convents and monasteries of the various Chris- 
tian sects. 

A stream of worshippers of all nations passes contin- 
uously among the hordes of beggars and pedlars squat- 
ting on the stones. Here a young Syrian is selling 

8 7 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

candles of all kinds and sizes, from tapers no bigger than 
your little finger to great cylinders as thick as your arm, 
to pilgrims who go to burn them before the altars within 
the sepulchre. 

There is a rosary pedlar doing a rushing business. 
She is a Bethlehem girl with two bushels of beads. They 
are made of olive wood and of the pips of the olive itself, 
as well as of mother-of-pearl. All around you are the 
characters of the Scriptures. Here is a dark-brown man 
whose face reminds you of that of Judas in Leonardo da 
Vinci's "Last Supper." He is peddling little crosses of 
mother-of-pearl. Here is a woman with a face as beau- 
tifully sad as that of Mary Magdalene, and there is an 
old man selling pictures of the church dignitaries, whose 
patriarchal beard and honest eyes make you think of 
Abraham. There are pedlars of brass rings and glass 
bracelets from Hebron. The crier of drinks in bare feet 
and blue gown, with his skin water bottle on his back, 
passes along announcing his wares by clinking his two 
brass drinking-cups together. 

The crowd moves on in a never-ending stream toward 
the door of the church. It is the same, morning and 
evening, day in and day out. Thousands upon thou- 
sands of footsteps have worn the flag stones to the smooth- 
ness of marble, and on and on they come, year after year 
and generation after generation. We enter the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, the church which these people 
believe covers the spot where Christ was crucified and 
where His tomb is kept. It is the church that Constantine 
built, the church for which the Crusaders fought, the 
shrine where the religious of all Christendom would bow. 

It is a vast building of yellow limestone rising out of 

88 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

and above a jumble of houses in front of the court, with a 
dome a little smaller than that of our Capitol at Wash- 
ington. At one side a chapel rises above the other parts 
of the structure to the second story, and the whole 
stands upon hill and valley so that the chapel rests 
upon a rock high above the level of the ground floor. 
This rock is supposed to be Calvary, upon which stood the 
cross of Christ. Around the rotunda extends a series of 
buildings, consisting of gaudily decorated churches and 
chapels of a dozen different denominations and sects. A 
wide vaulted aisle runs around between these and the 
rotunda into which they open. 

Entering, we go through a high-arched door past a 
ledge cut into the wall at the right where Mohammedan 
officers smoke long-stemmed water-pipes while they sit 
with their legs crossed and direct the soldiers posted 
here to keep the crowds in order. We go into a great 
square vestibule in the centre of which, with rows of 
immense candles at its head and foot, there lies under a 
long row of beautiful brass lamps a rectangular stone of 
rose-coloured marble about eight feet long and four feet 
wide. It is four inches above the floor, and around its 
edges burn the wax tapers of worshippers. This is the 
Stone of Unction on which it is said the body of the Lord 
was laid when it was anointed for burial. 

Pilgrim after pilgrim walks forward and prostrates 
himself before it. Each one gets down on his knees, and 
bows his head to the floor, then leans over and kisses the 
stone. As we come closer we see that the marble has been 
worn rough by the pressure of human lips. As we stand 
and watch the earnest worshippers who pray before it, 
we cannot but be impressed with their faith. An old 

8 9 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

peasant woman in black, who trembles as she puts her 
long thin hands caressingly on the marble, bends over and 
touches it again and again with her withered lips. A 
pretty boy of ten crosses himself and kneels beside his 
Armenian mother while they go through their devo- 
tions together. Another pilgrim lays his beads on the 
slab, that they may be blessed by the contact, and crosses 
himself as he rises. Now there kneels a family of Greeks, 
the men in the ballet-girl costume of the Albanians, fol- 
lowed by a richly dressed lady who lays some cakes of 
incense on the slab, and prays long before it. Behind 
her come two Russian women with long strips of white 
linen in their hands. Waiting until the crowd has par- 
tially thinned, they measure the stone with this cloth, 
and cut it into strips of just the size of the slab. They 
rub these strips over the stone, praying as they do so, 
for these are to be their winding sheets, and they be- 
lieve that, buried in them, they will rest more easily in 
their graves. It is difficult to appreciate the solemnity 
of the worship at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

There is superstition mixed with earnest, honest faith, 
as is so often the case in the poor, weak human brain, 
even in those who lay claim to greater intellectuality 
than these poor pilgrims. 

These tens of thousands of pilgrims continue to pray 
as they rise from the Stone of Unction, and then with 
bowed heads walk on into the great rotunda of the 
church itself. Here in the very centre rises an oblong 
marble structure about thirty feet high, twenty-five feet 
long, and seventeen feet wide. The marble is yellow 
with age and the architecture of the building is rude 
rather than artistic. This is the tomb of Christ. It is 

90 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

more like a chapel than a tomb, and its fronts and sides 
are covered with candles. Curious brass lamps, with 
glass globes of different colours, hang like a frieze around 
its alabaster top, and between these are oil paintings of 
scriptural scenes. In its front, in gold pillars as tall as 
a man, are columns of painted wax each six inches thick 
and twelve feet high. At the top of each of these a flame 
trembles. 

At Easter there flows through its low door an endless 
stream of humanity. We enter through a vestibule so 
dark that we can hardly see the features of the people 
around us, and find the same kissing and praying going 
on. Upon the column of marble about three feet high, 
standing in the centre of the vestibule, thousands of 
kisses are pressed every day. Into its top is set a piece 
of the stone which was rolled from the door of Christ's 
tomb. The stones walling the tomb are very thick, and 
the door is so narrow that only one man can enter it at 
a time, and so low that even boys bow their heads in 
going in. The space within is so small that it will hold 
only four persons at once. It is dimly lighted with can- 
dles, and a Greek priest in cap and gown is always on 
guard. At the right of the room, set into the wall, there 
is a marble slab of purest white resting upon another 
slab about four feet high and forming a box or ledge. 
This box is supposed to have been the sepulchre of 
Christ, to the people of the Christian world the holiest 
of the holy places of the earth. The worshippers here 
pray and drop their tears, and men reverently back their 
way out to give place to others. All of the Christian 
sects claim a right to the tomb, and it is free of access 
to every denomination. 

91 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The chapels of the various churches opening into the 
rotunda are gorgeously decorated, and each sect has some 
relic of the Crucifixion which people consider their es- 
pecial charge and which they guard with the greatest 
reverence. One chapel contains the stocks in which 
some of the saints were imprisoned, and the chapel of 
the Syrians has the tomb of Nicodemus and of Joseph of 
Arimathea. The Latins have the column of the scourg- 
ing. The Greeks, who have the finest chapel of all those 
surrounding the rotunda, are first, both in wealth and 
power, in the Church of the Sepulchre. 

The Oriental Christians are very superstitious, and 
have implicit faith in all the stories connected with the 
Sepulchre. They believe that the ceremonies of Easter 
carry with them saving grace, and during this Holy Week 
they are in a state of religious frenzy. The officers 
of the various churches do all they can to increase this 
excitement, with the result that there is a series of re- 
ligious pageants in which each patriarch and his bishops 
try to outshine the other churches in splendour and 
gorgeous ceremonials. The competition is so great that 
at times the various sects break out into unchristian 
fights, and once there was a riot in the Holy Sepulchre 
in which more than three hundred pilgrims were suf- 
focated or trampled to death. 

During the ceremonies of Easter, companies of soldiers 
are stationed in the more holy places of Jerusalem, and 
several companies surround the various patriarchs in their 
church exercises. 

The celebrations begin with Palm Sunday. The pa- 
triarchs bless the palms which are distributed by the 
thousands to the people. Every man, woman, and child 

92 




Waiting for the Holy Fire to come down from Heaven, a "miracle" 
celebrated by the Greek Church during Easter Week. From the candle 
mysteriously lighted inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, others are 
lighted in rapid succession 



The use of ladders to gather the olive crop has replaced the old, waste- 
ful method of beating the trees to shake off the fruit. The olive grows 
best where its roots can find their way into the crevices of a rock 



EASTER IN JERUSALEM 

in Jerusalem seems to be waving palm branches, and the 
court and Church of the Sepulchre are filled with green. 
The Greek Patriarch and his bishops march three times 
around the grand aisle outside of the rotunda of the 
church, bearing a cross of gold and preceded by clouds 
of incense from urns carried by the bishops in gorgeous 
white brocaded silk gowns covered with roses of red and 
gold. In the procession there are a score or more of 
bishops with crosses of diamonds six inches long upon 
their breasts, and with their long hair flowing from under 
their high caps and down upon their shoulders. The 
Greek Patriarch, the central figure of all of these cele- 
brations and the head of the Greek Church in Palestine 
and Arabia, carries the gold cross-like staff of his office. 
He is dressed in the most gorgeous of gowns of cloth of 
gold and silver, and upon his handsome gray head is his 
cap of high place — a great dome-like tiara of silver and 
gold, fairly blazing with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, 
each of them worth a fortune. 

Every day of Holy Week has its ceremonies, and be- 
tween times the pilgrims visit the spots made sacred by 
association with Christ's life about Jerusalem. They 
kiss the ground on which Stephen was stoned; they visit 
the monastery which now stands on the floor of the house 
of Pontius Pilate; they pray before Christ's prison, 
and they hold services all along the Via Dolorosa, kneel- 
ing and praying at the various stations. 

The Easter festival itself is not so wonderful in com- 
parison with the services of the week. The day is ush- 
ered in with the ringing of bells. The Russian pilgrims 
rush into each other's arms and give the "kiss of peace." 
The Easter celebrations are more notable for the display 

93 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

of fine vestments and gorgeous plate than for the excel- 
lence of the music or unusual features in the ceremonies. 
The Latin churches hold their services in front of the 
chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, the Latin Patriarch offi- 
ciating. There is a solemn high mass in front of the 
Sepulchre, and after this the Patriarch and bishops, fol- 
lowed by the crowd bearing lighted candles, march 
around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, chanting and 
offering up their prayers on the spots made sacred by 
their association with the Saviour's death and burial. 
The ceremonies of the Greek Church come later, when 
all over the hills about Jerusalem can be heard the voices 
of the people and the sound of the bells pealing forth 
the song of the risen Saviour. 



94 



CHAPTER XIII 



WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES 

TWO of the great sights of Easter in Jerusalem are 
the foot-washing on Holy Thursday and the 
"miracle" of the descent of holy fire from heaven 
on Easter Eve. During my visits to Jerusalem 
I have seen both ceremonies. 

The washing takes place in the open air at the door 
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Pa- 
triarch washes the feet of twelve of his bishops in com- 
memoration of the foot-washing of the apostles by Christ 
after the Last Supper. 

By dawn of Holy Thursday, at the time I last saw this 
rite, the court was packed, and for hours before the 
ceremony began the streets were jammed with a crowd 
of Mohammedans and Christians, of Orientals and Oc- 
cidentals, such as you will see nowhere else in the world. 
Many of the pilgrims slept in the court all night in order 
to be sure of places. In the centre of the court stood an 
oval rostrum about four feet above the stones. Around 
its floor ran an iron railing enclosing a space about eight 
feet wide and twelve feet long. Inside the railing and 
running around it were seats, and at the back a gold and 
white armchair cushioned with red satin. This stage 
was for the ceremony, and the chair the throne of the 
Patriarch. The other seats were for the bishops. Around 
this platform, to keep back the crowd, was a guard of 

95 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



soldiers, and back of these, in a solid mass, were the 
people. 

From my seat on a housetop I looked with wonder at 
the twenty thousand people below. The steps leading 
to the chapel of Mount Calvary were filled with Mo- 
hammedan women in sheet-like gowns with veiled faces, 
and every niche and corner of the buildings surrounding 
the court was covered by Greek men and boys holding 
on to the walls as best they could. The ledges of the 
convent were filled with Syrians, and even the roof of 
the Sepulchre itself had its coping of picturesque hu- 
manity. 

There was a stir in the crowd. I looked toward the 
door of the church. Preceded by two fierce-looking 
Syrian kavasses with swords at their sides and carrying 
silver-headed staffs, came the bishops and in their midst 
the stately figure of the Patriarch himself. The grand 
procession passed slowly and majestically through the 
mass of people. A wonderful silence succeeded the 
tumult as the bishops mounted the steps of the rostrum. 
The Patriarch took his seat on his chair of state and 
the twelve bishops arranged themselves on each side. 
They were fine-looking men, all of them, with their full 
silken beards and their gorgeous robes. 

Presently a chanting solo was heard from the convent 
on the courtyard. There against the wall in an impro- 
vised pulpit above the heads of the multitude a Greek 
priest in black cap and gown stood with a gold-plated 
book open on a rack in front of him. His chant con- 
tinued during the greater part of the proceedings. A 
priest brought to the rostrum a large golden pitcher in 
a basin of gold as big as a foot-bath and placed it in front 

96 




The Church of the Pater Noster, on the Mount of Olives, contains tablets 
of the Lord's Prayer in thirty-two languages 



With towel and basin the Greek Patriarch washes the feet of his twelve 
bishops each Easter Week, thus commemorating Christ's washing of the 
feet of His apostles. The bishop representing Peter always raises objec- 
tions, which the Patriarch overrules 



WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES 

of the Patriarch. As His Beatitude and the bishops rose, 
there was a waving of the crosses formed of candles, a 
passing of the hands this way and that, and a great 
deal of bowing, which was understood only by the Greeks 
and the Russians. 

Then the Patriarch prepared for the washing. Stand- 
ing in front of his chair, he first took off his great dome 
of a hat. As he did so his long gray locks fell down 
almost to his waist and his fair, open, dignified face shone 
out under the sun. He next laid off his grand gown; 
piece by piece the cloth of gold was removed, until at 
last he stood forth in a white robe of the finest cream- 
coloured silk crepe bound round the waist with a gold- 
and-white girdle. In this still grand attire personating the 
Saviour, he took a long Turkish bath towel and twisted 
it about his loins. Then stooping over he poured the 
water from the gold pitcher into the basin. 

The twelve bishops, in the meantime, were busy get- 
ting their feet out of their English congress-gaiters and 
pulling off their white cotton socks for the washing. 
Each bared one foot and held it out to be washed as the 
Patriarch came around with the basin. The Patriarch 
did the washing very quickly, rubbing each foot with 
water and drying it with a towel. As he finished he bent 
over and kissed the foot he had washed and then went 
on to the next. The last bishop represented St. Peter, 
and, after the example of Peter of the past, he objected 
to having his feet washed by the Lord; he rose and 
gesticulated violently. But the Patriarch opened the 
Bible and read to him the admonition of Christ to Peter, 
shaking his hand at Peter as he did so. A moment later 
Peter sat down humbly and submitted to the washing. 

97 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

At this moment the bells of the Greek churches all 
over Jerusalem burst out in a chorus of rejoicing. The 
preacher against the wall chanted louder than ever, 
while the great crowd surged this way and that in their 
efforts to get nearer the platform. The Patriarch de- 
scended, the bishops followed, and in double file they 
marched out through the crowd, with the kavasses clear- 
ing the way. A priest carried in front of the Patriarch 
a vase of the holy water in which the feet were washed, 
and into this His Beatitude dipped a great bouquet of 
roses with which he sprinkled the water over the crowd. 
The people held up their faces to catch the purifying 
drops and rushed to the platform to wipe up with their 
handkerchiefs what was spilled on the floor. Those who 
succeeded in thus wetting their handkerchiefs then pressed 
them over their faces. 

The "miracle" of the holy fire also takes place in the 
church in front of the tomb two days after the foot- 
washing ceremony. The Latin churches have not taken 
part in it for more than three hundred years. The 
Roman Catholics protest against it, and it is now managed 
entirely by the Greeks and the other sects of the Orient. 
. The Greeks say that the "miracle" has been celebrated 
ever since the days of the apostles. It is mentioned in 
theological literature as far back as the ninth century, 
and in the twelfth century it was made use of to arouse 
a religious fervour against the enemies of Christianity. 
Most of the pilgrims of the Eastern churches believe that 
the fire actually comes down from heaven and that they 
are able to ignite their candles from flames sent by God. 

This sacred fire appears in the tomb of the Holy Sep- 
ulchre precisely at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 

98 



WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES 

Saturday before Easter. On the morning of that day all 
of the lights of the church are put out, and the people 
stand for hours and wait for the great event. There 
are holes in the walls of the Sepulchre itself, and through 
these the candles of believers are passed to the Pa- 
triarch of Jerusalem, who is inside. He lights them with 
the sacred flame as soon as it appears and hands them 
out burning. Other candles are lighted from these, and 
runners carry the holy fire all over Palestine, to Bethle- 
hem and to Nazareth, and to the Sea of Galilee. 

The night before the miracle hundreds sleep in differ- 
ent chapels and in the rotunda, in order to hold good 
places for the morrow, and during the day the churches 
are thronged to such an extent that people are often 
injured by the crush. In the morning everyone has a 
bunch of candles in his hand. There are ten thousand 
dozens of candles in the crowd, and all are to be lighted 
within an hour with fire from heaven, as they believe. 

When the ceremonies begin, the Greek Patriarch and 
his bishops in gorgeous dresses march three times round 
the Sepulchre with banners, praying. They ask God to 
send down the fire, and their march is preceded by a 
flag and a cross. There is chanting and crossing, and 
then the Copts follow their Ethiopian Patriarch, gorgeous 
in his gold cap and gown. Now there is silence, and the 
only sound is that of the squeezing mass as it breath- 
lessly watches. 

The Patriarch has entered the Sepulchre, and the fire 
is expected from heaven. No one seems to suspect that 
it comes from his matches, and the scratching, if there 
be any, is not heard. It appears to be all dark within 
the walls of the Sepulchre. Suddenly there is a great 

99 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



shout. A faint light shines out through the holes. The 
soldiers struggle to keep the crowd back. Men with 
whips push this way and that, making roads through 
the mass which the soldiers try to keep clear. The 
priests stand at the holes in the walls, and great bunches 
of candles are passed in. They are handed out lighted, 
and fleet runners seize them and dash to the various 
chapels. The Copt chapel at the back of the Sepulchre 
flames with lights, and in less time than it takes for me to 
write this sentence, the whole of the mass below me is a 
blaze of fire. Every man, woman, and child holds a 
lighted candle, and many are hauled up by strings from 
one gallery to the other. A priest creeps along the roof 
of the chapel of the Sepulchre. He lights the hundreds 
of lamps and candles upon its edges; and as I look over it 
I see that the Greek chapel beyond now blazes with 
thousands of coloured lights. The lamps over the whole 
of the great church are burning. The smoke comes up 
in great clouds, and the air is perceptibly warmer. 

It is just seven minutes by my watch since the first 
candle was lighted, and in fifteen minutes the sacred fire 
will be all over Jerusalem. 



IOO 



Ready-mades have not yet arrived in the Near East. Jerusalem 
tailors sit at the doors of their tiny dark shops on ledges two feet above 
the street level. Customers must stand outside to bargain and be 
measured 




The Greek Church has the finest collection of religious paintings in 
all Jerusalem. This has long been the richest and most powerful of the 
Christian sects in the Holy City and has roused much antagonism in the 
other churches 



CHAPTER XIV 



A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH 

I HAVE just had an audience with one of the chief 
religious functionaries of the oriental world. The 
Patriarch of Jerusalem is first in the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre, and as the head of the Greek Church 
in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia, he is the pope of the 
East. Most of the people of Russia belong to what was 
once a part of the Greek Church, and it has other mil- 
lions of members in Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor. 
As a result of immigration, there are also hundreds of 
Greek churches in the United States. It is the most 
powerful and the richest church of all the denominations 
represented in Jerusalem. 

There is no king in the world who appears in such 
splendour upon state occasions as the Patriarch of Je- 
rusalem. He wears cloth of gold and his great hat is 
covered with magnificent diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. 
The bishops who march with him have crosses of dia- 
monds hanging about their necks, and their dresses are of 
gold and silver brocade. The mitre and other church 
insignia are of solid gold and silver. In the treasury of 
the Greek Church here there are jewels which would 
make the treasures of many a palace seem commonplace, 
for the rich men and the kings of the world have for gene- 
rations been giving to this collection, thinking that in 
so doing they have been buying their way into heaven. 

101 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The Greek Church has a score of monasteries and con- 
vents in the Holy City where it can accommodate pil- 
grims by the thousands. Its believers come to worship 
here from the borders of Siberia, from the isles of Greece, 
and from the wilds of Arabia, and as I write there are 
thousands of Russian pilgrims paying their devotions in 
the gorgeous Greek chapel of the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre. The Greek Church has a faith which might 
be called a cross between Roman Catholicism and Prot- 
estantism. It differs from Catholicism chiefly in deny- 
ing the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, in not demanding 
the celibacy of the clergy, except the bishops, and in 
authorizing all of its people to read the Scriptures. It 
claims to be the original Christian church and says that 
the Roman Catholics broke away from it. The dispute 
between the two branches of the Church arose three or 
four hundred years after Christ. It was a question as 
to what should be the rank of the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, and as the Pope would not give in the trou- 
ble began. It continued off and on until about iooo A. D., 
when the two churches broke apart, and from that time 
the Greek Church has existed on its own footing. 

The head of the Greek Church is the Patriarch of 
Constantinople, and under him are the patriarchs of 
Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Since the sixteenth 
century, the Russian branch has been independent of 
the main body. These patriarchs are elected by the 
clergy and the laity. They have limited terms of office, 
but the Patriarch's power over the people here in Je- 
rusalem is to a large extent that of a judge as well as 
of a pope. 

But let me tell you about my talk with His Beatitude. 

102 



A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH 

It was arranged by one of the church and the audience 
took place in the Patriarch's house, a great stone build- 
ing near the Pool of Hezekiah and not far from the 
Church of the Sepulchre. His Beatitude lives there 
with one hundred monks, and I saw many fine-looking 
Greek priests as I went up the stairs of rose-coloured 
marble. I passed through several rooms filled with 
high-capped, black-gowned ecclesiastics, and as I waited 
priests and bishops from the four quarters of Greek 
Catholicism passed in and out. One of the priests, who 
spoke English, went with me into the audience chamber 
and gave me a seat at the right of the throne. He asked 
me to wait, telling me that the Patriarch would be in 
shortly. 

Meantime, there were others who had come for an 
audience, and the chairs about the long table in the 
centre of the room were soon filled. Most of the men 
were bearded priests dressed in black gowns and high 
caps. 

As we waited a servant brought in a silver tray con- 
taining a plate of rose-and-white cubes of Turkish delight 
and several glasses of water. Upon the tray were many 
silver forks, each having two fine tines as long as my 
little finger. As the candy was passed each one of us 
took a fork and stabbed it into a cube of the sweets, 
and thus conveyed it to the mouth. It was delicious. 

By and by the Patriarch entered. He talked first 
with some of the priests, so I had a good chance to study 
him. Imagine a tall, full-bearded, fair-faced man of 
middle age dressed in a long black gown and a rimless 
black hat which rises eight inches over his forehead. 

The gown, which is cut full, falls to his feet. His 

103 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

cap is draped with black cloth which covers his shoul- 
ders, and about his neck is a long, heavy gold chain to 
which hangs an ivory medallion as big as the palm of your 
hand. The rim of this medallion is studded with dia- 
monds and inside the rim is a painting of the Madonna 
with the Holy Child in her arms. 

I watched the Patriarch as he talked. He gestured 
now and then and I saw that his hands were soft and 
his nails well kept. His face changed with the subject 
and the man he spoke to. At times he was serious, 
again his eyes sparkled with animation, and now and 
then he broke into a smile. 

My talk with him was through the Greek priest, 
who spoke English. I asked His Beatitude about the 
condition of the Church. He spoke of many sects of 
Christians now in the Holy Land, saying that they 
were gradually growing more liberal, and that they 
would work more in harmony than they had in the past. 

I asked about the life of the priests and whether he 
thought it was as pious as that of the hermits who lived 
in the second and third centuries after Christ. He 
replied that he doubted whether man was as good now 
as then, but that the Church was doing what it could to 
bring him back to the faith. He said he believed that 
the time would come when all mankind would be Chris- 
tian, although that time would probably be far in the 
future. I was surprised to hear him speak well of the 
Protestants and say that all Christian sects would even- 
tually unite and work together as one for the salvation 
of man. 

His Beatitude was much interested in America and at 
my request gave me the blessing which he gives to all 

104 



A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH 



true believers, saying that I must transmit it to the 
American people, each of whom could regard it as being 
made especially for him. This blessing was given to 
me in a golden frame. The words are printed in Greek 
in letters of gold. Literally translated, it reads: 

Almighty God., the Father of Mercy and God of Prayer, bless, purify, 
and strengthen these Thy disciples who now bow before Thee. 

From every wicked work withdraw them, and in every right action 
give them Thy aid. 

Make all things smooth to each according to his wants. Be with 
those travelling upon the water and upon the land. Comfort the poor 
and heal the sick. 

We praise Thee, Our Father, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the 
source of all graciousness and glory. 

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the 
Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. Amen. 

Then there was a little more talk about the Greek 
Church and a second servant came in with another tray 
more elaborate than was the first one. Upon this were 
wine glasses filled with a liquor the colour of the dark 
moss rose. It was flavoured with peppermint and had 
the rich, oily strength of age. Though scarcely more 
than three thimblefuls, it brought a pleasant warmth 
to the whole frame five minutes after it was drunk, and 
the discussion of the doctrines of the Greek Church fell 
on my ear like the poetry of Moore. 

This refreshment was followed a few moments later by 
a third servant who brought in Turkish coffee served in 
little cups of fine china, each the size of the smallest 
egg cup. The coffee was as thick as Vermont molasses. 
It was sweet and delicious and was served without cream. 
After coffee is served in Jerusalem the caller can po- 

105 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

litely terminate his visit. We sipped the aromatic liquid 
and then arose to say good-bye. This we said in Amer- 
ican style, shaking hands with "His Blessedness" and 
receiving from him a present of a Bethlehem egg. My 
egg lies before me as I write. Its ground is the same 
red as the coloured eggs of the American Easter, but this 
red is covered with etchings and on one side there is a 
rude picture of Christ ascending to heaven, with the 
cross in the background and with the Virgin Mary hold- 
ing up her hands in adoration. On the other side in a 
wreath of olive branches is the date. 

There is room in Palestine for the Patriarch's hope 
that some day the Christian sects will get along better 
together than is now the case. The Holy Land often 
boils and seethes with the quarrels of the religious fa- 
natics. Almost every sacred place in the country is 
claimed at the same time by the Greeks, Latins, Armen- 
ians, and Copts. Some of the holiest spots are divided 
up, and lines are drawn here and there indicating the sect 
to which each part belongs. The various denominations 
are frequently divided among themselves as to who 
shall control the monasteries, convents, and other insti- 
tutions belonging to them, and quarrelling even goes on 
over the very spot where Christ was born and upon that 
where it is supposed the Crucifixion took place. 

These quarrels are sometimes serious. Knives have 
been drawn and people have been killed in these re- 
ligious riots. Some years ago a monk was shot by an 
American pilgrim in the Church of the Nativity at 
Bethlehem, and more recently a gigantic candle was sent 
to Jerusalem addressed to the care of certain priests. 
This candle was nine feet high and two feet thick, and as 

1 06 



A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH 

far as its outward appearance was concerned seemed to be 
entirely of wax. It was shipped in from abroad, and was 
intended to be lighted inside the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre and to burn there while the Easter celebrations 
were at their height. At that time the church would 
have been filled with Greeks, Armenians, Latins, and 
Abyssinians. When the candle came to Jaffa, the cus- 
toms officers held it for duties, and sent word to the 
priests to come and get it. When they failed to appear 
it was cut open and five thousand little dynamite balls 
were found inside it. Had it exploded at the time of the 
ceremonies ten thousand or more people would have been 
in danger of losing their lives. 

That candle might have been sent by a Greek who was 
disgruntled at the Church, and in his desire for revenge 
cared not how many he killed. I am told that some of 
the factions in the Greek Church have refused to go to 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre until their wrongs are 
righted. The Greeks who are natives of Palestine claim 
that they have the sole right to the church and church 
property. There have already been numerous riots be- 
tween these Greeks and the foreign monks, and at one 
time the people demanded that the Patriarch of the 
Greek Church resign. 

The fight among the Greeks is to some extent senti- 
mental, but it is also said to be largely one for the loaves 
and fishes. The Greeks are the most powerful religious 
body in Palestine, and their property runs high into the 
millions. Scattered over the Holy Land from Dan to 
Beersheba are their monasteries, convents, and hospices, 
to all of which pilgrims who travel over the country 
make contributions. Some of the places are so valuable 

107 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



that the priests in charge are said to pay a lump sum of 
a thousand dollars or more a year for the privilege of 
presiding at them, expecting to recoup themselves from 
the gifts of the pilgrims. Here in Jerusalem there are 
thirty-five Greek monasteries and other big buildings 
managed by six hundred monks. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the greater part 
of which belongs to the Greeks, brings in tens of thousands 
of dollars every year to the Church. There are thousands 
of Russians who make pilgrimages to this city, and each 
is expected to leave an offering according to his wealth 
and spiritual desires. 

The Greek Church also owns the shops of a bazaar 
near the Holy Sepulchre and holds the titles to the 
most valuable of the buildings about the Jaffa Gate and 
David's Tower, including the Grand New Hotel building. 

The native monks say that the Greek priests who have 
come in from Constantinople, Athens, Smyrna, the Isle of 
Samos, and other places now hold all the fat jobs, and that 
they themselves are compelled to work for only a few dol- 
lars a month. They do the pastoral work of the villages 
and act as the priests of the towns. On the other hand, 
the outsiders have amassed fortunes. They pretend to 
be hermits and devoted to fasting and prayer, but they 
are accused of living luxuriously and of keeping estab- 
lishments by no means as good as they should be. 

Indeed, the fights among the warring Christians have 
sometimes been so bad that the Mohammedan soldiers 
here had to use whips to keep them in order. I have 
seen Moslem soldiers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
at Easter time whipping the quarrelling Greeks, Ar- 
menians, and Copts in order to separate them. It is not 

1 08 



Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, candle sellers, rosary pedlars, 
and hawkers of relics trade on the holiness of the Holy City 




The Moslem who knows his Koran by heart commands the respect of the 
Faithful. In many Mohammedan schools it is the sole textbook 




The Palestinians never buy grain by the sack, for they want to see just 
how much they are getting. The merchant shakes the full measure, then 
heaps up the top with his hands. This is the Biblical "good measure 
pressed down, shaken together and running over" 



A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH ■ 

an uncommon thing for blood to pollute the Holy Sepul- 
chre on festal days. 

Conditions are especially bad at Easter time when the 
thousands belonging to the different sects go marching 
about singing their fanatical songs and denouncing each 
other. One of their cries is: "This is the tomb of our 
Lord." Another is: "Oh, Jews! Jews! your feasts are 
the feasts of pigs." 

As they go the Greeks jostle the Armenians and the 
Abyssinians bump against the Latins. Not long since 
the followers of one sect set fire to some rich hangings 
that had been placed in a grotto of the church by the 
followers of another sect. The fire spread, the church 
was filled with smoke, and it narrowly escaped being 
burned. 

The Greeks of Palestine claim that they have the 
right to all the churches, convents, and monasteries 
belonging to their church in the Holy Land. They de- 
mand that the money changers, as they call the for- 
eign priests, be whipped out of the temple, and that the 
gifts of the pilgrims be applied to the building of hos- 
pitals, old-age homes, and schools for their children. 
This movement is not confined to Jerusalem, but extends 
throughout Palestine and has the approval of the best 
element of the communities. 

Until recent years we have had so few Greek Chris- 
tians in the United States that it is hard for us to ap- 
preciate what the Greek Church means. It is one of the 
strong churches of the world. It has altogether about 
one hundred and twenty million members, or one fifth 
of all the Christians on earth, and more than two thirds 
as many as all the Protestants. I have before me the 

109 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

latest statistics of religious denominations. There are 
in the world two hundred million Roman Catholics, about 
one hundred and sixty million Protestants, one hundred 
and twenty million Greek Christians — five hundred thou- 
sand who belong to the Church of Abyssinia — and about 
seven hundred thousand Armenians. The sum total of 
Christians is less than six hundred million, and less than 
one third of the population of the world. 

On the other hand, there are three hundred and ten 
million who worship Confucius, two hundred and fifteen 
million Hindus, two hundred and thirty million Mo- 
hammedans, and one hundred and forty-seven million 
Buddhists. 



I 10 



CHAPTER XV 



AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS 

IF YOU would be cheated out of your eyeteeth, come to 
Jerusalem. Its bazaars are filled with tricksters and 
traders, and it has its usurers and money changers 
as in the days of the Saviour. The people prey upon 
the pilgrims and tourists. Their main object is to get 
gain, and they work the holiness of the Holy City for all 
it is worth. They sell candles which if burnt in the 
Church of the Sepulchre will carry away your sins in 
their smoke; and rosaries upon which if you count your 
prayers you may be sure of their ascending to heaven. 

The rosary business is a big factor in Jerusalem The 
beads are cut out in great quantities at Bethlehem and 
are shipped abroad by the millions. They are sent to 
the Holy City for sale, and there are some stores which 
have nothing else except perhaps crucifixes and collection 
plates. 

The merchants who sell rosaries are often great rascals, 
I know one, a Bethlehemite, who has just received a les- 
son which he is not likely soon to forget. The man's 
rosary store is situated down Christian Street, not far 
from the place where you turn in to the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre. His lesson came from a Jesuit priest, 
who lives in Chicago, and who is just now starting home. 
The holy father had come into the shop to buy some 
rosaries to carry back to his friends. He had picked out 

1 1 1 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



a half-dozen beautiful ones, and had paid the price with- 
out bargaining. As the storekeeper wrapped up his 
purchase, the priest looked at him out of the tail of his 
eye and saw him slip under the counter the rosaries se- 
lected and put some cheaper ones in their place. The 
Jesuit said nothing, but he took up several beautiful 
carvings representing the Crucifixion and Ascension, each 
of which was worth about twice as much as the rosaries 
he had chosen. Handing these to the man, he told him 
to wrap them up. This being done, he took both par- 
cels and started out of the store. The Bethlehemite 
merchant ran after him, and told him he had not paid 
for the carvings. The father replied: 

"My friend, I saw you change those rosaries and 
give me the cheaper ones, and you may consider this 
a judgment of God upon you for cheating. I shall keep 
these carvings, and if you do not immediately return to 
your store I will report you to the Mohammedan 
courts. " 

The man, seeing he was caught, let the priest go. 

Another large business is the selling of candles. Je- 
rusalem is full of shrines, and the pilgrims buy candles to 
burn at the holy places. They set them up at the score 
or more sacred spots in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
and at the stations along the Via Dolorosa where Christ 
walked on His way to Golgotha. They carry them to 
the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane. 
Some buy several candles for each shrine, and the richer 
purchase some of enormous size and many colours. The 
candle business is especially brisk at Easter time. 

As I have said before, many of the streets are vaulted 
over, and we often pass for a half-mile through what 

I 12 




Bethlehem maids are the prettiest in all Palestine. They bring fresh 
vegetables into Jerusalem each day and sell them in the markets 




The rosaries sold by the bushel in Jerusalem are made in Bethlehem 
of carved olive wood and of mother-of-pearl from the United States. 
Besides the thousands sold to tourists quantities are exported every year 



AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS 



might be called a subterranean cavern lighted by open- 
ings from the top and pierced at the sides with cave- 
like stores. The smallest business shops in the world are 
in Jerusalem. A great many of the stores are no bigger 
than a dry-goods box. They have no windows. I stopped 
this afternoon before a shoe repair shop, and, out of 
curiosity, took its measurements. It was a hole in the 
wall with its bottom edge four feet above the cobble- 
stone street. A rude stone two feet high was the step by 
which the shoemaker crawled in. It was just three 
feet wide, five feet high, and eight feet deep. It was as 
dark as a pocket, and the shoemaker squatting in the en- 
trance with a board on his lap filled it completely. He 
was working at a pair of rough Bedouin shoes the owner 
of which sat cross-legged and in his bare feet in the street 
outside. As the cobbler waxed his thread he was care- 
ful to move his hands toward the street and back into 
the shop. The place was so small that had he pulled his 
thread in the ordinary way he would have barked his 
elbows against the walls. 

Next to this shoe shop there was a Jerusalem restau- 
rant. It was an oval hole cut into the hill twelve feet 
high, eight feet wide, and forty feet deep. At the front 
was the cooking stove of Jerusalem, a rude slab of lime- 
stone with holes cut in the top as big around as a work- 
man's dinner bucket, and with other holes piercing these 
from the sides. A few inches from the top of each hole 
was a rude iron grating upon which the charcoal was 
laid. The draft which came in from below kept the fire 
going. The slab was mounted on cord-wood posts and 
had five fireplaces. At the back a rough table without 
a cloth was set for the guests. The only chairs were lit- 

113 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



tie stools a foot high and about a foot square the seats 
of which were of woven cords. 

Each kind of business, or trade, has its own bazaar. 
There is a shoemaker's bazaar where scores of cobblers 
are working. At the entrance to each cavelike shop two 
shoemakers sit sewing away with untanned calfskin 
aprons tight about them. Between them on a block of 
wood, an olive tree stump it may be, rests a slab of white 
marble. This is the shoemakers' bench, upon which they 
pound the wet leather to make it soft with what looks 
like a brass paper weight. It is as big around as a tum- 
bler and of about the same height, tapering from the top 
to the bottom. 

The shoes are all made with needle and thread. The 
soles are of camel hide and the uppers of kidskin or goat- 
skin. These are the common shoes of the peasant. As 
I watched the cobblers I asked about their wages and was 
told they received from forty to sixty cents for labouring 
from sunrise to sunset. 

In another street tinsmiths are at work making pots and 
pans out of oil cans. Their shops are not much bigger 
than cupboards, and the workmen are long-bearded men 
in fez caps and gowns. 

Farther on is the grain market, consisting of many great 
vaulted chambers one or more of which belongs to each 
merchant. The vaults are filled with piles of wheat, 
corn, barley, oats, and millet spread out on the floor. The 
grain is sold by measure. I saw a Bedouin come in to 
buy two bushels of oats. It was dipped out by the peck, 
the merchant shaking the measure to make the grain 
solid, and then heaping up the top with his hands so 
that the oats formed a cone. This was the "good measure 

114 



AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS 

pressed down, shaken together, and running over,'' as 
mentioned in St. Luke. The people here never buy grain 
by the sack, for they want to see it measured out before 
their eyes. But I am told that the grain sellers are some- 
times able to impose upon those who purchase, making 
them think they get more than they really do. 

Much of the grain of the Holy City is ground at home 
and a great deal of that of Palestine is made into flour with 
hand mills. Some flour is imported and some is ground 
in mills worked by camels or donkeys. In baking bread 
the dough is kneaded at home and brought in great 
lumps to the public ovens to be found in almost every 
street. They are cave-like vaults running down below 
the street level. At the back of each vault is the oven 
with a sort of well before its open door. In the well 
stands the baker with a long paddle in his hand upon 
which he puts in and takes out the loaves. I have seen 
many bakeries of this kind. The fuel is olive wood, and 
the oven floor is marked out in blocks, so that the bak- 
ing of each family may be put on a separate block. The 
loaves are about an inch thick and the size of a tea plate. 
Each has a hole in the centre. The baker gets a few cents 
for each half-dozen loaves, or he may instead take a toll 
of one loaf for each dozen. Before starting the baking 
he greases the floor of the oven with olive oil. 

The reason for these public bakeries is the great cost 
of fuel. The Arabs have a proverb showing that such 
baking is the cheapest. This runs: "Send your bread 
to the oven of the baker even though he should eat the 
half of it." 

I frequently see boys carrying dough to these bakeries, 
or bringing bread home from them. They use trays 

115 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



which they bear on their heads. Ancient Jerusalem had 
its Bakers' Street, for we read that King Zedekiah put 
the prophet Jeremiah into the court of the prison and 
commanded that they "should give him daily a piece of 
bread out of the Bakers' Street." 

During my stay in Jerusalem I have enjoyed the salad 
which is served at the hotel with an olive oil dressing. 
This is a land of olives and the oil is delicious. It is as 
clear as honey with a tint like the green of chartreuse. 
I say I have enjoyed it, but I doubt whether I shall en- 
joy it hereafter. Why? I have seen how it is made. 

Come with me to an oil mill which is kept in a cave 
just off David Street, not more than a stone's throw 
from the Pool of Hezekiah. At the side of the door there 
is a stone ledge. In the centre of this is a hole as big 
around as a flour barrel in which, with his clothes tied 
up about his waist, with bare legs and bare feet, stands a 
sweating Ethiopian treading the oil out of the ground 
olives. Peeping over into the well in which he is stand- 
ing, we see that he has a linen cloth laid on the top of 
the mushy mixture. He tramps this cloth into the 
olives with his feet and taking it up wet, wrings out the 
oil into a red clay basin from whence it is poured into 
pots to be strained for the market. 

Farther back stand a camel and a very small, knotty 
little donkey munching away while the mill is not go- 
ing. These animals grind up the olives, and in another 
cave opening into this we can see the mill itself. It is 
much like a horsepower grist mill, or the bark mill of a 
country tannery, and the camel and donkey walk round 
and round in a circle hitched to a bar which turns the 
mill. Their food is a brown cake made from what is 

116 




During the day the low cavelike shop of the Jerusalem shoemaker opens 
directly upon the street. At night it is closed by two swinging doors on 
rude hinges 




Christ's happiest hours were spent with his friends at Bethany, the 
village where He lived when He was teaching in Jerusalem near by. Here 
the "tomb of Lazarus" and the "house of Martha and Mary" are pointed 
out to the traveller 



AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS 



left of the olives after the oil has been pressed out of 
them. 

But let us go to market at the Jaffa Gate and see what 
the people have brought in from the country for sale. 
There are scores of women with baskets of vegetables 
before them. They have lettuce and eggplants and beau- 
tiful cauliflowers with heads as white as snow. They 
have lemons and oranges from Jaffa and apples and 
pears from the highlands of Judea. Many of the sellers 
are Bethlehem girls. Here are people selling beads, al- 
though most of the bead sellers are about the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre. Many of the beads are of glass and 
come from Hebron, not far from the cave which is Abra- 
ham's tomb. Hebron is the chief town of south Pales- 
tine and is a manufacturing centre. It makes lamps 
and bottles as well as glass trinkets and glass beads, 
which are sold all over the Holy Land. 

The cock which reminded St. Peter of his denial of 
his Master has many descendants. You may see some 
of them in this market, tied by the legs and lying on the 
stones. The Holy City has no ordinance against crowing 
cocks, and nearly every family here keeps its own rooster. 
There are so many that the city resounds with their music, 
and about daybreak they start up a concert which mur- 
ders sleep. I am living in the heart of Jerusalem — I 
might as well be in a barnyard. The rooster symphony 
begins with sunrise and keeps on until evening, and then 
the donkeys and camels take up the strain. The donkeys 
bray louder than did Balaam's ass, and the camels whine 
and grumble all night. In addition to these noises, there 
are others which trouble the tourists. The people rise 
with the chickens and the stone streets reecho their 

117 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



steps. The birds sing and the pedlars shout. At the 
same time the bells begin ringing to show that it is day, 
and the trumpets of the soldiers in David's Tower add 
to the din. One can easily sleep in a railroad depot or 
near a boiler factory, for the noises there are of one or 
two kinds and the ear comes to know them. Here there 
is a new sound every minute. 



118 



CHAPTER XVI 



EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 

TO-DAY I have walked through streets which were 
probably thronged when Moses and the Israelites 
were wandering in the Wilderness, and have 
tramped up and down staircases of clay built 
hundreds of years before Christ was born. I have been 
in the ruins of old Jericho, the city Joshua captured over 
three thousand years ago, now brought to light again by 
modern excavations. 

The place is only about fourteen miles from Jerusalem 
as the crow flies. It lies on a little plateau, just under 
the mountain upon which it is said our Lord was tempted 
by the devil and promised the world. It is about three 
miles from the present town of Jericho, where I am 
stopping, and within easy access of it. 

The excavations at Jericho are the work of the Aus- 
trian Ministry of Education. When they dug into what 
seemed only mounds of earth the remains of a great 
fortified city were found. This city was undoubtedly the 
Jericho of Canaan. It lies on a height surrounded by 
great walls some of which are of stone. It has inner 
walls and a citadel and was flanked with strong towers. 
The heart of the city is about twelve hundred feet long 
and five hundred and twenty-five feet wide. 

Many of the houses have been unearthed. In one of 
them, which is supposed to have been built twenty- 

119 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



seven hundred years ago, there was found an uncovered 
courtyard. The house seems to have been abandoned 
during a fire, and for some reason or other is better 
preserved than most of the others. It contained a red 
sandstone mill for grinding meal and water vessels of 
various shapes. It had plates and jugs as well as lamps 
and iron vessels with handles of deer horn. 

In going through the ruins I crunched over bushels of 
pottery broken in pieces. I saw water jars chipped and 
cracked. Each had a clay stopper as big as a tomato 
with a hole through the centre. There are hundreds of 
these stoppers lying on the ground. There are also stone 
mortars which were used for grinding grain, and the re- 
mains of amphorae, or huge jars with necks and side 
handles, which were buried in the earth and used to hold 
wine or grain. Most of the pottery is covered with a 
white glaze, and some of it has vertical stripes of yellow 
painted upon it. 

In the buildings the stone walls are constructed without 
angles, the cracks being filled in with smaller stones. I 
am told that the work was done with tools of bronze, and 
that some of it dates back before history. The centre of 
the city is on an egg-shaped plateau just above the plain 
of the Jordan. 

It is difficult in wandering through these ruins of mud, 
brick, and rough stone to realize that here was once a 
magnificent city. The Jericho of Joshua's day was not 
magnificent in our sense of the word, although it covered 
a large area and had a great many people. There are 
no remnants of great marble columns, and it is said that 
Jericho had disappeared long before Christ came and that 
another city had taken its place situated in this same 

120 



EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 

Jordan Valley. The Jericho of Christ had a theatre, a 
circus, and a university. It ranked with Jerusalem as 
one of the important places in Palestine. Surrounded by 
irrigated gardens, it was known as the City of Palms. It 
had grown up in Roman times, and Mark Antony thought 
so much of it that he gave it as a present to Cleopatra, 
who collected quite a revenue from the balsam groves 
near by, which furnished the gum of commerce. Cotton 
was raised here at that time, and this region was then a 
winter resort for Jerusalem. Herod the Great had pal- 
aces in Jericho. It is said that he died here, although 
he was buried near Hebron. We know that our Saviour 
came to Jericho, and here He healed the blind. He did 
not stay in the city, but dwelt outside in the house of 
Zaccheus, who was a collector of taxes for the Roman 
Government and therefore not popular with the Jews. 
I refer to Zaccheus the dwarf. He was so short that 
he feared he would not be able to see the Christ over 
the heads of the crowd and, as you remember from the 
verse in the old primer: 

Zaccheus he did climb a tree 
His Lord to see. 

The ruins I have been exploring represent not the city 
of Christ's time, but that of the day of Joshua and Rahab. 
You remember Rahab, the fair lady, not so good as she 
should have been, who lived upon the walls of Jericho, 
and who hid Joshua's spies under the stalks of flax she 
had stored up on her roof. She told them of the terror 
which prevailed in the city over the expected attack of 
Joshua, and made them promise to save her when Jericho 
was taken. The spies arranged with her that she should tie 

121 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

some red thread to the bars of her window so that her 
house might be spared. She then let them down by a 
cord through the window, and they escaped and reported 
to Joshua. That was a good day's work for Rahab. The 
promise of the spies was carried out by the Israelites. 
Moreover, she married one of the princes of Judah, a 
man named Salmon, and thereby became one of the 
most famous women of the ancestral tree of the Israel- 
ites. She was the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth, 
and King David was one of her great-great-grandchil- 
dren. On the next step of her genealogical ladder we find 
King Solomon, while away down the centuries later comes 
the name of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and of the 
family of Christ. In the first chapter of Matthew are 
given the generations from Abraham to the birth of our 
Saviour, in which are mentioned the names of only four 
women: Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who 
had been the wife of Uriah and became the mother of 
Solomon. 

Right under old Jericho is the fountain of Elisha which 
the prophet made sweet by throwing salt into it. It is 
not far from the spot where he was mocked by the chil- 
dren who cried after him: "Go up, thou bald head/' 
Thereupon, say the Scriptures, the prophet turned and 
"cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came 
forth two she bears out of the woods and tare forty and 
two children of them." 

It is said that the place where Elijah was carried up in 
a whirlwind to heaven was not far from Jericho, and on 
my way down here from Jerusalem I saw the cave in 
which the prophet is supposed to have been fed by 
ravens. It is in the Wady Kelt, a great dry rocky can- 

122 



EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 

yon with high walls. The cave is half way up the side 
of the gorge and partly hidden by the monastery which 
the Greeks have built there. 

But let me tell you how I came down to Jericho. The 
way from Jerusalem is through the wilderness of Judea, 
over one of the roughest and stoniest lands of the world. 
There is but little green to be seen and the glare is in- 
tense. The dust of the limestone and chalk road is so 
thick that it gets into eyes, mouth, and nostrils. This 
road, which is the chief highway from the Jordan to the 
Holy City, is travelled by thousands. The traffic was 
even greater in the time of Christ, for the Jordan Valley 
was then covered with irrigated farms and the rich men 
of Jerusalem had their winter homes there. 

I left Jerusalem in a carriage, going out through the 
Damascus Gate, crossing the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and 
skirting the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the 
Mount of Olives. 

My carriage was an easy victoria drawn by three 
Arabian horses, and the coachman was a Syrian Jehu 
with hair as red and a face as fair as my own. I had a 
a soldier with me to keep off the robbers. He was fur- 
nished by the government of Jerusalem at a cost of three 
dollars and was under the direct command of the sheik 
here at Jericho. This soldier carried a gun and sword, 
and went ahead, nominally to clear the road. Every 
party I met on the way, including a company of hunters 
from Jerusalem on their way for game in the lands be- 
yond the Jordan, had an escort of soldiers. 

I stopped at Bethany to look at Lazarus's tomb, and 
was reminded of how Mark Twain said that he would 
" rather sleep in the tomb than in any other house in the 

123 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

place/' The Bethany of to-day is a dirty, ragged village 
of forty or fifty stone huts inhabited by perhaps three 
hundred people. The houses stand on the side of a hill, 
rising one over the other. The people are small farmers 
who cultivate patches of stony land and little orchards of 
olives and figs. They have cows and make butter for 
Jerusalem. They are all Mohammedans, and their chil- 
dren call out for baksheesh. 

Entering the town, I took a look at the tomb. It is 
a sort of cavern cut out of limestone and entered by 
steep steps. It belongs to the Franciscan monks, who 
often say mass there. 

The house of Mary and Martha, where Christ stopped, 
is said to have been in an inclosure now full of brambles 
and wild cactus. There is no building left, although the 
guides point out a pile of stones which they say was 
once a part of the wall. 

On the way to Bethany I was shown the site of the 
fig tree which was cursed by the Saviour and thereafter 
never bore fruit. There are many fig trees about, and 
orchards of them are to be found in most parts of 
the Holy Land. It was on the road to Bethany that 
Christ is said to have mounted the colt which carried 
him on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm 
Sunday. 

Shortly after I left Bethany I saw a curious sight by 
the roadside. This was a man leaning backward over a 
great gray boulder and rubbing himself violently upon it. 
There were some stones on top of the rock and I ob- 
served that the man added another stone to the pile 
and that he kissed the rock as he left. I asked my 
guide the secret of his actions. He replied: "That stone 

124 




Tradition says that by a miracle the prophet Elisha purified the waters 
of this fountain. Excavations on the hillside above have uncovered the 
foundations of the old city walls of Jericho, over which Rahob let down 
the two spies of Joshua 



At the Tomb of Lazarus there are always natives waiting to be photo- 
graphed — for backsheesh 




His back hurts him, and he is rubbing it against the healing stone on the 
way to Jordan, believing this will work a cure 



EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 

is called the Father of Rocks, and it is said to be a sure 
cure for backache. The people here think that any one 
so afflicted will be cured if he can rub his sore back 
against it." 

A little farther on I stopped for a bottle of ginger pop 
and a cracker at the Good Samaritan Inn, which stands 
on the traditional site where lay the man who fell among 
thieves when the priest and the Levite passed him by 
on the other side. It is right on the road about half 
way between Jerusalem and Jericho. There was a crowd 
in the inn while I waited, among them a Syrian peasant 
who had been robbed by a party of Bedouins. The man 
was covered with wounds, and was crying and sobbing 
as he told how he had been attacked and robbed of the 
money which he had just received from the sale of some 
sheep. Much of this country is unsafe, and no one who 
has money dares travel alone. All the way to the Jor- 
dan I met little caravans on their way to Jerusalem. In 
every party there were some men with guns on their 
backs. The guns were often old-fashioned flintlock 
muskets. I passed some donkey trains taking bags of 
charcoal from beyond the Jordan, and a caravan of 
camels each of which bore two great bags of wheat slung 
over his back. The drivers of both donkeys and camels 
were armed. They had come from the land of Moab, 
and were now going up through Judea. 

Before starting on my way to the Jordan I spent sev- 
eral hours on the Mount of Olives. This mountain is 
two hundred feet higher than the hills upon which Je- 
rusalem stands. It is directly opposite the city, being 
separated from it by the Valley of Jehoshaphat or Kedron, 
and it can be easily reached. There are good roads up 

125 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

the Mount of Olives, and one can now ride to most of 
the holy places. 

With the prosperity which is coming to Palestine the 
Mount of Olives is rapidly changing. Its slopes are cul- 
tivated, the rocks are being picked up and laid in stone 
fences, and the cleared spots planted to crops and to 
orchards. There were many olive orchards on this 
mount in the days of the Saviour, who came here fre- 
quently to get away from the crowds of the city. The 
soil seems fertile, and the crops upon the mountain grow 
luxuriantly. There are green patches of wheat, barley, 
and oats, while here and there are carob trees, with pods 
like those which furnished the food for the prodigal son 
when he ate with the swine. 

The Mount of Olives is now spotted with churches and 
chapels. It has monasteries and convents, a great Rus- 
sian church, and several hospices, including the huge sani- 
tarium built in honour of Augusta, Empress of Germany. 
One of the most interesting of these institutions is a 
Carmelite nunnery, which has been erected over the 
spot where tradition says Christ taught the Lord's Prayer 
to His disciples. The church here is called "The Church 
of the Lord's Prayer," and has in its court tablets in- 
scribed with the prayer in thirty-two different languages. 
I visited the chapel of the nunnery, where prayers go 
up every day and night and every hour of the day all 
the year through. The nuns so divide their time that 
one is always praying. They kneel behind a screen and 
are not to be seen by visitors. This church is one of 
the quietest and most solemn of all in the Holy Land. 
After the noisy scenes which take place about the Holy 
Sepulchre it is a relief. 

126 



EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO 

The Carmelite nuns are devout. They do not go out 
of the nunnery except it be absolutely necessary. ' Even 
when they walk in its garden they wear such heavy veils 
that they have to hold them out from their faces to see 
where they are going. My guide tells me that each nun 
digs her own grave, and that when she is about to die 
she is dressed in her shroud and carried into the church 
in order that she may pass away there. 

In the floor of the Chapel of the Ascension near the 
nunnery is a spot which looks like a footprint, and is 
said to be the place where the foot of the Saviour rested 
before He ascended to heaven. The chapel belongs to the 
Mohammedans and is let out at times to the Christians. 
But to me the Garden of Gethsemane was more interest- 
ing. It lies at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just off 
the Jericho road. It is surrounded by a wall of yellow 
limestone twelve feet high and about four feet thick. 
On the outside of it, in the shade of the wall, sat a score 
of lepers who held out their hands for alms as we passed. 
They were dirty and filthy and their disease had made 
them repulsive sights. Some had no fingers, some no 
noses, and one held out a tin can tied to the stump of 
her wrist from which the hand had dropped off. 

The garden goes up the side of the mountain. It is 
almost square and does not cover two acres. It is cut 
up into flower beds bordered by inverted beer and wine 
bottles. There are eight old olive trees, pansies of all 
shades of the rainbow, and many beautiful flowers, as 
well as dark cypress trees. The garden belongs to the 
Franciscan monks who opened the gate at our knock. 
The gate is a mere hole in the wall, so low that all 
who enter must stoop. It is closed by an iron door, 

127 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

with a round black bar of iron, ten inches long, as a 
knocker. 

Just back of the entrance to the garden is a ledge of 
limestone where the disciples are said to have slept during 
the night of the agony, and perhaps one hundred feet 
farther away stands a column which tradition says marks 
the spot where Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss. Both 
of these places have been worn smooth by the lips of 
thousands of pilgrims. 



128 



The source of the Jordan at Banias is one of the largest springs in the 
world. The Jordan is rightly named the "down-comer," for in its wind- 
ing course of two hundred and forty miles it drops from the mountains 
to the Dead Sea, nearly thirteen hundred feet below sea-level 



We need an escort for the trip over the barren wastes to the River 
Jordan, for Bedouin brigands still occasionally relieve the unwary tour- 
ist of his valuables 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 

THE Jordan! How shall I make you see it as it 
winds its way through this great gash in the 
thirsty face of old Mother Earth? 
All day long I have been travelling upon its 
banks in the lower part of its course. I have visited the 
ford where Joshua crossed with his army of Jews when 
he took possession of Canaan; have stood on the spot 
where it is said that Jesus was baptized of John, and have 
gone over the place where the waters were parted by the 
cloak of Elijah. Here at Jericho I am within a short 
gallop of the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan flows, and 
sitting on the steps of my hotel I can see Mount Nebo, 
where Moses stood when he viewed the Promised Land, 
which he was not to enter. In former travels I have 
seen the Jordan, near the Sea of Galilee, and have been 
not far from its source in the Lebanon Mountains. 

The Jordan Valley is the cellar of the world. It is a 
great trench, which begins a thousand or more feet above 
the sea in the Lebanon Mountains, and within a distance 
of one hundred and sixty miles, as the crow flies, cuts its 
way down to thirteen hundred feet below sea level, where 
it ends in the Dead Sea. The bottom of that sea is 
a half mile below the surface of the Mediterannean, and 
in Jericho, where I am writing, we are almost four thou- 
sand feet below the highest point in Jerusalem. There is 

129 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



no other part of the earth uncovered by water where for 
an equal distance the land is sunken even two hundred 
feet below the level of the ocean. This is the strangest 
trough of the world. Though often associated with the 
idea of going to heaven, the Valley of the Jordan is em- 
blematic of hell. Most of it is as parched as the dry sands 
of the Sahara, and just now its heat is as torrid as Tophet. 
The plain over which I rode to-day on my way to the 
river was covered with thorn bushes. The only green I 
saw after leaving the irrigated farms about Jericho was 
that bordering the gully through which the Jordan 
runs. For the rest, the alkaline earth cut up by the 
floods into castles and mounds, makes bare gullies and 
hills of all sizes and shapes. 

The mean temperature of Jerusalem, only fourteen 
miles away, is 64 Fahrenheit. It is temperate through- 
out the year and snow falls there in the winter. The 
heat here is as great as that of the centre of Nubia. For 
six months in the year the mean temperature in the 
Jordan Valley averages ioo° Fahrenheit. 

But this is not the character of the whole course of the 
Jordan. Let me give you a bird's-eye view of the river, 
or, better, let us suppose we have taken an aeroplane and 
are going from its source in the Lebanon Mountains to 
where it loses itself in the great sea of salt below here. 
It rises on the foot of Mount Hermon, whose peak is 
covered with snow the greater part of the year. It has 
two or three different sources. One is near Dan, and 
higher up is another at Banias, near the spot where Christ 
said: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my 
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

It is at Banias that the Jordan has its chief source. It 

130 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 

comes from a cave in the limestone rock which is now 
choked up with stones, but out of which the water flows 
in a great volume, cold, sweet, and pure. There are trees 
about the cave and the stream runs through a beautiful 
park down to Lake Huleh, which is only seven feet above 
the sea. The spring of Banias has always been noted for 
its sweetness and purity. It is said the waters and cave 
were formerly dedicated to the god Pan, and that from 
him came the name Banias, or Panias. Greek tablets 
have been found near by, and ruined temples and columns 
show that the place was once the site of a considerable 
city. It has now only a mud village of about fifty huts. 

Flying down to Lake Huleh, we see a marshy catch 
basin into which run other streams and from which the 
Jordan flows out. There is little activity about the lake. 
Near it live a few Bedouins whose only business seems to 
be making mats of the papyrus reeds growing on the 
shores. These are the waters of Merom beside which 
Joshua and his men of war battled with the Canaanites 
for the Promised Land. 

A little farther down is the main crossing to Damascus. 
The place is known as the Bridge of Jacob's Daughters, 
and the stream is here on the level of the sea. It drops 
six hundred and eighty feet in the next nine miles, falling 
in a series of twenty-seven cascades. 

The remainder of the Jordan's course runs between the 
seas of life and death. I refer to the Sea of Galilee at 
the north and the Dead Sea at the south. The first, 
though somewhat brackish, is full of fish and surrounded 
by verdure. The other is saltier than any other water on 
earth, and so bitter and poisonous that no living thing can 
exist within it. The distance between these two seas in a 

131 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

straight line north and south is about sixty-five miles, and 
the slope from one to the other is almost twelve feet to 
the mile, or over six hundred and sixty feet. Connecting 
them is this great trough of the Jordan, from one to six- 
teen miles wide. Through it flows the sacred river, 
twisting about like a corkscrew, and making so many 
turnings that it flows more than two hundred miles in an 
airline distance of only sixty miles. It runs with great 
force and there are numerous falls where electric plants 
might be put in. The land on each side might be turned 
into rich farms if it could only have water, and it may be 
that the good fairy of electricity will some time bring 
the dead earth to life. 

There are some farms in the upper part of the course 
of the Jordan and there is a sugar plantation half way 
between Galilee and the Dead Sea, where soldiers work 
as labourers. There are small fields of grain, including 
millet, wheat, and barley here and there, and I am told 
that rice and indigo can be grown. 

Down near the Dead Sea there is considerable culti- 
vation on the Jericho plain. The land is irrigated by a 
stream from the mountains of Judea and by the spring 
of Elisha. It is cut up into small patches covered with 
orange groves, almond orchards, and vineyards. Much 
of the fruit goes up to Jerusalem. There are also fields 
of eggplants, tomatoes, and melons, and dates could 
undoubtedly be grown. All the way from here to old 
Jericho, a distance of about three miles, are orchards, 
vineyards, and gardens. They are fenced with thorn 
bushes, the thorns on which are great hooks turning in- 
ward. They are said to be the same thorns as those of 
which the crown of our Saviour was made. 

132 








A thick mist always hangs over the weird waters of the Dead Sea, while 
intense heat and insect pests make its shores almost intolerable 




The current is swift in this place and we hire a fisherman to take us 
across the Jordan. Under Turkish rule the river was considered the 
personal property of the Sultan, who allowed no pleasure craft upon it 




Bethlehem is a maze of narrow, winding streets, lined with box-like 
houses having flat grass-grown roofs and overhanging windows. Here 
Rachel died and was buried; here dwelt Ruth and Boaz, and here were 
born David and the Saviour 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 

The Jordan is not navigable. Along its whole course 
it has no wharves, no boats, and no cities or villages of 
any account. It has numerous fords but no bridges of 
any size. The wooden bridge about six miles above the 
Dead Sea is a toll bridge, with fords above and below it. 
The people use it only when the river is high. At other 
times the caravans save the toll by passing through the 
fords. 

On its course from Galilee to the Dead Sea the river 
narrows and widens. Now it is a swift, black, sullen 
current flowing between ugly mud banks covered with 
refuse, now it comes close to the mountains which border 
the valley on either side, and down here at the Dead Sea 
it reaches a width of five hundred feet, being so shallow 
that you could almost wade across it. 

The water gathers the denudations of the mountains. 
It changes in colour from season to season, and in the 
spring spreads out in floods over the valley. It is said 
that the parting of the water in order that Joshua and 
the Israelites might pass over was when the river was 
at its highest. 

At this point in its course it is not a sweet water. It 
has gathered the salts from this arid country and is so 
full of organic matter that those who carry it home for 
baptisms have to boil and filter it to get rid of its dis- 
agreeable smell. I have several canteens which I filled 
myself from the stream, or rather with the water which I 
brought in wine bottles from the Jordan and had boiled 
and filtered before it was put into the cans. If I ever 
have a grandchild it shall be baptized with this water. 
I bought the canteens at the Jordan Hotel here at Jericho 
where they are kept on hand to be sold to the tourists 

133 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



and pilgrims. A vast number of them are carried away 
every year. 

Let us go from Jericho to the land where the Moabites 
live on the other side of the river. It is only a few miles 
away, and we can drive there in a carriage. As we start, 
the great white blazing sun is climbing the blue above 
Mount Nebo, and the faint streak of the Dead Sea, with 
the haze that hangs always over it, can be seen down the 
valley. Our soldier gallops in front to scare off the Bed- 
ouins and we wind our way lazily in and out through the 
wheat fields. Leaving these we enter a desert on the 
edge of which stands Gilgal, where the Israelites first en- 
camped after crossing the Jordan, and then go on through 
thorny scrub among gullies and hills until we approach 
the long fringes of thicket which border the river. There 
is more vegetation as we near this, and we go through 
the bushes until we come to a creek no wider than a city 
street. It looks like some of the small streams of our 
central states. I know many such in Indiana, Illinois, 
and Ohio, and there is one of just about the same size 
which goes by the name of Goose Creek in Loudoun 
County, Virginia. The Rhine and the Hudson, the Po- 
tomac, or even the Shenandoah, could swallow the Jordan 
without bulging, and just now it is so small that in the 
United States it would not be called a river at all. 

Nevertheless, the current is swift at this place and we 
hire a fisherman to take us across. He charges twenty- 
five cents for the boat, and for this rows us up and down 
stream for an hour. He stands up as he rows and leans 
on the oars. We go to the other side of the Jordan and 
climb out through the willows. How quiet it is! The 
only sounds are the ripple of the stream as it washes the 

134 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 

banks and the songs of sweet-voiced birds in the trees at 
our left. As we return we lean over and bathe our hands 
in the Jordan. The water is cold. When taken up in a 
bottle it looks like weak milk. We taste it. It is acrid 
and salty and we spit it out in disgust. 

Here Christ is said to have been baptized of John. At 
this place, which is about three miles from the Dead Sea, 
the water at ordinary times is four or five feet deep. Most 
of the pilgrims come here, and it is the scene of tens of 
thousands of baptisms a year. The chief time of baptiz- 
ing is Easter, when the Russians come by the thousands 
and when other members of the Greek Church unite with 
them in a great caravan which journeys here and camps. 

Leaving the Jordan we make our way down the valley 
to the Dead Sea. The road goes through the thorn 
bushes and twists about through the barren hills. The 
land is salty and alkaline and all nature is dead. How 
hot the sun is, and how glaring! Our eyes smart, and 
horrid flies crawl with legs of glue over our faces. We 
try to brush them off but they alight and bite us again. 

Now we are on the shore of the sea, which is covered 
with pebbles and driftwood. It looks more like a lake 
than a sea, and is just about the size of Lake Geneva in 
Switzerland. It is only fifty miles long and ten miles in 
width and we can see from one side of it to the other. 

The Dead Sea lies between stony mountains. On the 
east are the desert hills of Moab, where Ruth was born 
and Moses is buried, and on the west lie those of Judea 
where the children of Israel came after Moses had pointed 
out to them the Promised Land. There are openings at 
the north and south, and away at the southwest are works 
for evaporating the water to make salt. 

135 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



The Dead Sea has no outlet. The water evaporates 
so fast that it is usually misty here. It is estimated that 
over six million tons of water flow into it daily. Never- 
theless, its level changes only a little throughout the year, 
and that at the times of the flood. 

Now dip up some of the water in your hand and taste 
it. It burns your tongue and your lips. It is as bitter 
as gall. If you drank a glass of it you would probably 
die. It is the saltiest water on earth. If you will take 
a gallon and boil it down, you will find that one fourth of 
the contents is solid. It is six times as salty as the water 
of the ocean, and a cubic mile of it would contain nine 
hundred million tons of mineral matter. The sum is so 
staggering that you cannot comprehend it, but at ninety 
tons to the car it would take ten million cars to carry that 
much, and if your cars were a little under forty feet long 
the train required for the load would reach eighty miles. 
There is asphalt or pitch in the bottom of the lake and 
the water has other minerals in addition to salt. Indeed, 
the salt proper left after boiling comprises only about 
7 per cent, of the whole. 

If you would further test the water, take an egg and 
drop it into the sea. It will float, leaving one third of 
the egg above the surface. A fresh egg will sink in fresh 
water, and we break our egg to be sure it is fresh. 

Another test. Let us strip off our clothing and go in 
for a swim. You do not know how to swim? That 
makes no difference in this salty sea. The water is so 
heavy you could not sink if you tried. You can lie on 
your back and float all day long. You can stand upright 
and tread, but it is almost impossible to maintain such a 
position. Your feet have a tendency to fly to the sur- 

.36 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN 

face, and you bob up and down like "the monkey on the 
stick." Now try to swim. Your feet fly out of the water 
and you cannot make any headway. Now let us wade 
out and let the sun dry our skins. We feel as if we had 
been painted with mucilage. We are gummy and oily 
and incrusted with salt. We were scratched as we came 
through the thorn bushes and the salt got into the wounds 
and they are burning like fire. We shall not be happy 
until we can get some fresh water to wash off the salt. 

An interesting thing about the Dead Sea is the fact 
that on its shores were the sites of the ancient Sodom and 
Gomorrah, the two towns which became so wicked that 
the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon them. There are 
said to be sulphur springs in the country about, and it 
may have been a volcano which caused the destruction. 

It was right here on the plain of the Jordan that the 
nephew of Abraham and the cousin of Ishmael and Isaac, 
the good man Lot, had his estate. It was in Sodom that 
he lived, one of the richest of its citizens, and the only 
just man in the city. From there he went out with Mrs. 
Lot and the two girls. And it is said to be at the south- 
west end of the lake, not far away, that Madame Lot 
turned and looked back and, as we may suppose, longed 
for the fleshpots. And lo! she became a pillar of salt. 
There are still deposits of rock-salt at that end of the 
lake, and the guides now show the remains of a pillar 
which they say was once Mrs. Lot, but which has been 
licked by the camels until it has almost disappeared. 



137 



CHAPTER XVIII 



BETHLEHEM 

DURING my several trips to Palestine I have 
visited Bethlehem, where our Saviour was born, 
and have lived for days in Nazareth, where His 
boyhood was spent. I have gone over much 
of the road Joseph and Mary followed when they car- 
ried the child into Egypt, and have crossed the moun- 
tains of Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem, where He 
went as a boy of twelve and was found teaching the doc- 
trine in Solomon's Temple. 

I have even climbed the hills and gone into the wilder- 
ness where our Lord was tempted of the devil after those 
forty days of hunger and thirst. At Capernaum I saw 
the recently excavated marble synagogue where some of 
His first preaching was done. I have climbed to the top 
of the hill above the Sea of Galilee, where He delivered 
the Sermon on the Mount, and have picked flowers from 
the rolling green sward below, where the miracle of the 
loaves and fishes was performed. Not far from that place, 
on the opposite shore, may be seen a steep hill down which 
rushed the swine possessed of the devils our Saviour had 
cast out of the Gadarene man. I have been in Bethany, 
where lived Mary and Martha, and have sat under the 
trees in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Many of these places are about the same as they were 
when our Saviour was alive. Some have been covered 

138 



BETHLEHEM 



with churches and convents, but the warring sects of 
Christians have not been able to change the bright sky. 
Nature is the same now as it was then. The same flow- 
ers bloom and the same birds sing. Besides, it is not so 
long, after all, since Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The 
average lifetime of a man is not much more than was that 
of our Saviour. He lived thirty-three years. It would 
take only fifty-eight such lifetimes to cover the period 
between now and the birth of Christ. Each of us has a 
relative who is, perhaps, sixty-five years old. The lives 
of thirty such men would, if joined together, reach back 
to the days of King Herod. 

We shall take carriages for our trip from Jerusalem to 
Bethlehem. We start at the Jaffa Gate, next David's 
Tower, on the top of Mount Zion, near where, it is 
claimed, the Crucifixion took place. The gate was widened 
by the breach in the wall made in honour of Kaiser Wil- 
helm of Germany, so all sorts of vehicles can now go 
through it. As we leave the gate we pass coffee houses 
where people of a dozen different nationalities are drink- 
ing, go by the railroad station, where a puffing loco- 
motive is just in from the Mediterranean, skirt the valley 
of Hinnom, in which is the Pool of Gihon, where David 
was anointed, and a little later on stop near the village 
where King Saul was crowned. 

The road is excellent. It is of hard limestone walled on 
each side by limestone fences and backed by green fields 
now covered with the dust of the highway. The traffic 
is constant, so that the air is white with dust. It fills 
our eyes, mouths, and nostrils, and makes us look like 
millers. We cover our eyes with smoked glasses to keep 
out the glare. The road is dazzling white, the fences are 

139 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



white, a white dust covers the green of the fields. As 
we are going toward the south, the sun is full in our 
faces. It is hot, although a cold wind is blowing over 
these hills of Judea which whirls the dust around and 
sends columns of it into the air. 

Soon after leaving Jerusalem we cross a depression 
carpeted with green, which is known as the Valley of 
Roses. Farther on are olive groves, and as we near Beth- 
lehem there are great fields of green. At the left we can 
see the plain where the young widow Ruth garnered 
wheat for old Boaz and thus got food and a husband. 

All the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem crops are grow- 
ing. There are signs of increased cultivation, and every 
bit of available land is being set out in orchards and 
gardens. I went over the same road twenty-odd years 
ago. Then the country was bare rocks with bits of grass 
here and there. To-day the land is divided into fields. 
The surface rocks have been gathered together and laid 
up in fences as high as my head. The cleared land is 
now planted in wheat, corn, and barley. New olive 
orchards are rising, while many of the old ones still 
stand. The trunks of the old trees are knotted and 
gnarled, but the leaves are of green dusted with silver, 
and I am told they still bear fruit. I photographed one 
tree not more than thirty feet high which had a trunk 
as thick as a hogshead and branches which shaded a large 
tract of ground. The soil of Palestine is as fertile to-day 
as it was when Joshua led the Israelites across it, and 
barring the fences, I doubt not the landscape is about 
the same now as it was when Christ was born. 

Every bit of the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is 
historic ground. Over this same road Abraham travelled 

140 



Young women in Bethlehem proudly wear their dowries— necklaces 
and fillets of coins, and beautifully embroidered shawls, which may mean 
over a year of painstaking needlework 



BETHLEHEM 



to Mount Moriah. Along it came the Wise Men. of the 
East following the Star on their way to the stable where 
Jesus was born. They had called upon crafty King 
Herod at Jerusalem to ask about the King of the Jews. 
He had told them to find where He was born, that he 
might come and worship Him. The road goes by a well 
where it is said these Wise Men stopped to drink. It is 
known as the "Well of the Magi," and is near an olive 
grove on the east side of the road. It is covered with a 
marble slab as big around as a cart wheel with a hole 
cut in the centre through which the water is raised by a 
bucket and rope. The stone is polished by the kisses 
of pilgrims. 

The story is that the Wise Men as they trudged along 
in the gathering twilight sat down by this well to rest. 
When they stooped forward to draw some water to 
drink, they saw reflected in its mirror-like surface the 
guiding Star. They looked toward the heavens, and 
then, in the words of the Scripture: 

Lo, the star which they saw in the East went before them, until 
it came and stood over where the young child was. 

It was not far from here that I caught my first 
sight of the field where the shepherds lay when the 
angel and the heavenly host announced Christ's birth 
to them. It is said to be the field of Boaz upon 
which Ruth gleaned her wheat. It lies across the valley 
to the east of Bethlehem. There is a little village in 
front of it, and a part of the field is covered by an olive 
grove. I saw the sheep feeding upon it, and as I rode 
to Bethlehem I passed flocks of them being driven to 
the Jerusalem markets. They were of the fat-tailed 

141 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



variety, some of their tails weighing, I venture, fifteen 
pounds each. The drivers were kind-eyed and gentle 
in their manners and as they went by us they cried out 
Neharak said, or "May thy day be happy!" To this we 
replied Neharak said umubarak which in Arabic means 
"May thy day also be happy and blessed/' 

The shepherds were dressed in long gowns and wore 
handkerchiefs about their heads as turbans. Some of 
them wore sheepskins, and it is probable that they were 
clad much the same as those who "came with haste" 
and found the infant Jesus lying in a manger. There is 
a chapel now in the Field of the Shepherds, and for cen- 
turies a church and a monastery stood on the spot. 

Soon after leaving Jerusalem we pass a hill on the left 
of the road, where, the guide says, stood the building in 
which Judas Iscariot sold his Lord for thirty pieces of 
silver. Not far away is an old olive tree upon which 
the pilgrims are told Judas hanged himself in his remorse 
after the Crucifixion. 

Going onward about four miles from Jerusalem we 
come to a building which has just received a fresh coat 
of whitewash. It is known as the Tomb of Rachel, 
and covers the spot where she is said to be buried. Not 
far from it David had his fight with Goliath, the ten-foot 
giant of the Scriptures. I am not sure as to the locality, 
but there are millions of stones there to-day, and plenty 
of ammunition for the slings of an army of Davids. In- 
deed, there is hardly a field on the hills of Judea which 
is not covered with stones of one size or another, and the 
shepherds use slings to this day. 

And speaking of stones reminds me of the Field of 
Peas, which lies not far from Bethlehem. It is a tract 

142 



BETHLEHEM 



on the side of a hill where the stones are so thick that 
if it were planted to corn you would have to carry earth 
to cover the grains. As the story goes, our Lord was 
passing by here when He saw a man sowing grain. He 
stopped and asked him what he was sowing. The man 
replied " stones." And thereupon the seed peas in his bag 
turned to stones, and all that he had sown did the 
same. Some of the stones now on the field are gathered 
up and peddled to pilgrims as relics. 

I had one such pedlar follow me half the way from 
Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He was a turbaned Syrian 
boy on a donkey, who had to gallop to keep up with my 
carriage. To this the donkey objected, and the boy kept 
him up to his work with a stick as long as a husking peg 
and equally sharp. He inserted this under the saddle, 
behind him, and then using it as a lever, pulled on the 
other end of the peg, forcing its sharp point into the 
animal's flesh. At every such pull the donkey kicked 
up its heels and increased its speed, while the rider bobbed 
up and down, and his long, full-trousered legs stood 
straight out. 

Climbing the hill, we come into the town of Bethlehem. 
We find ourselves in a maze of box-like, one-, two-, and 
three-story limestone houses. They stand close to the 
edges of winding streets, which are here and there arched 
over to shut out the sun. The town, which has about 
fifteen thousand inhabitants, is probably ten times as 
large as it was when Christ was born. Its chief revenue 
comes from its association with the Christian religion 
and the fact that Christ was born here. There are thou- 
sands of tourists who visit the birthplace of the Saviour 
every year, and the chief business of the Bethlehemites 

143 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

is making rosaries, crosses, and articles of wood and 
mother-of-pearl for sale to the pilgrims as well as for 
shipment abroad. I was surprised to learn that the 
mother-of-pearl used is imported from the United States, 
where it is known as "pearl waste." Shells are carved 
and sold to tourists in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and the 
Palestine beads, so largely used as rosaries, both by 
Mohammedans and Christians, are made here. These 
beads are filed out of oyster shells until they are the right 
size. Holes are then drilled in them and they are polished 
by shaking them about in crockery vessels with a little 
water. After this they are treated in a weak solution 
of nitric acid, polished again, and strung on cords of silk 
or wire. Crosses and hearts are made of mother-of-pearl, 
and sometimes a little image of the Saviour is attached 
to the rosary. Much of this work is done by women and 
girls, who receive from twelve to twenty-five cents a day. 
It is estimated that the total production of such wares 
sells for in the neighbourhood of two hundred thousand 
dollars a year, and that something like thirty thousand 
dollars' worth are shipped to the United States annually. 

The grotto or cave in which Christ was born is in the 
very heart of the Bethlehem of to-day. There is an open 
square in front of it surrounded by stores and schools, and 
a great church known as the Church of the Nativity has 
been built over it. The church is entered by a door which 
looks like a square hole cut through a stone wall. It is 
so low that all who enter, even the children, must stoop. 
As I started to go in I saw a Bethlehem woman with a 
baby in her arms standing outside. The baby was small, 
and I could imagine the woman as Mary and the child 
as the Saviour. Taking a coin out of my pocket, I asked 

144 




Ropes used by generations of drawers of water have furrowed the 
stones of Jacob's Well where Christ talked with the woman of Samaria. 
Over it the Greeks have recently erected a stone chapel 




There are left in Palestine less than two hundred Samaritans, whose 
High Priest guards the ancient scroll of the first five books of the Bible., 
which they claim is the original version of the Pentateuch 



BETHLEHEM 



her to pose for my camera. She did so, carrying the 
child into the sun. Near by, in the shadow of the church, 
was a bearded Syrian in turban and gown, and at first I 
thought he might make a good Joseph to pose with my 
Mary. Upon bringing him into the light, however, I found 
that he was a beggar and would not fit into the picture, 
so I enriched him with a gift of five cents and sent him 
back to his seat. 

One part of the Church of the Nativity is controlled 
by the Armenians and Latins, another by the Greeks, 
and there are soldiers on hand to keep the worshippers in 
order. These two sects fight for the right to take care of 
the birthplace of Jesus, and not long ago a controversy 
arose over which should clean one of the windows. Both 
the Armenians and the Greeks were quarrelling over it 
when the Mohammedan authorities came in and forbade 
either sect to touch it. Therefore, that window remained 
unwashed. 

The stable is under the church. It is reached by a 
winding staircase going down into a cave floored with 
marble about twelve feet wide and forty feet long. Thirty- 
two lamps burn day and night within it. Set in the 
marble pavement is a star over which there is an inscrip- 
tion stating that on that spot the Virgin Mary gave 
birth to Christ. This star is held down by nails. Once 
the Armenian who had the right to clean it was working 
away when he knocked off the head of one of the nails. 
This caused a great commotion. The Greeks, Latins, 
and Armenians began to fight over it, and the governor of 
Jerusalem, to settle the dispute, called in a blacksmith to 
drill out the old nail and put in a new one. The black- 
smith proved to be a member of one of the quarrelling 

H5 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

sects. In order to settle the trouble the governor called 
in a gypsy, who had no religious standing whatever, and 
he replaced the nail without opposition. 

At one side of the cave is a recess called the Chapel 
of the Manger, where it is said the Saviour was laid after 
His birth. The manger is of brown-and-white marble, 
and a wax doll lies in it representing the Christ. The 
Latins claim that they have the original manger in one 
of their cathedrals in Rome. It is shown every Christ- 
mas. 

As I stood in the stable not far from the manger, a party 
of twenty Franciscan monks came in and knelt down and 
sang a service concerning the Nativity. They were 
burly men with shaved heads and long beards. They 
wore long gowns and their heads and feet were bare. 
They knelt upon the floor as they sang, and at the end 
each bowed down and kissed the star marking the spot 
of Christ's birth. 

This Bethlehem grotto, if indeed it was ever used as a 
stable, has been so changed by the decorations that it is 
impossible to conceive it to be the place of the Nativity. 
It is probably a fraud, as is also the well at one side of 
the crypt where the water is said to have burst forth 
from the naked rock for the use of the Holy Family. I 
looked down into this well. It is said that the star, that 
guided the Magi fell into it, but that it is only visible to 
the eye of a virgin. 

I tried in vain to imagine the scenes of Christ's birth. 
The decorations were out of all keeping with the place, 
and the warring Christians prevented reverent thought. 
I got a better idea by going into some of the actual 
stables which are in use in Palestine to-day, and which 

146 



BETHLEHEM 



are just about the same now as they were nineteen hun- 
dred years ago. I remember one such stable near Je- 
rusalem. It was a cave with a floor of rough stone, 
divided into chambers or stalls, which opened into a sort 
of court. There were men and women sleeping on the 
floors of the courts, with the animals eating out of their 
stone boxes or mangers about them. The people had no 
bedclothing except their blankets, and ate their meals 
on the floor. It was on such a floor that Mary had to 
lie, because there was no room at the inn, and the manger 
in which the baby Christ lay was probably a hollowed- 
out stone box such as those in which the donkeys were 
eating. Within this stable I saw a Bedouin woman with 
a sleeping baby on her knee. She had just been feeding 
the child and one breast peeped out between the folds of 
her coarse, rough gown. Her arms were bare to the 
shoulders and there were bracelets upon her wrists. Her 
face was as sweet as that of any Madonna I have ever 
seen upon canvas, and her baby, still in its swaddling 
clothes, looked as pure and as innocent as the most 
famous representation of the infant Christ. 

It was in such stable that the Wise Men knelt and pre- 
sented their gifts. It was there that the shepherds came, 
and it was there that our Redeemer first saw the light of 
this world. 

Here at Bethlehem occurred the slaughter of the in- 
nocents. King Herod had learned that the Saviour was 
born, and he thought that if this infant King of the Jews 
still lived at Bethlehem he would make sure of His death. 
So his soldiers killed all the children under two years of 
age. In a place here, which the guides tell you was used 
for storing the bodies, there are oil paintings horribly 

147 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



done depicting the killing. Bethlehem was so small that 
it must have been difficult to hide the infant Christ 
from the men sent by King Herod to search for Him, and 
it is no wonder that Joseph and Mary took the Holy 
Child and fled with Him to Egypt. 

The Bethlehem of to-day has entirely recovered from 
the massacre of Herod. Its streets swarm with babies 
many of whom are not as clean as they should be. There 
are many older children as well, and all howl for bak- 
sheesh. The Bethlehemites are noted for their beauty, 
especially the girls, who are fair-skinned and bright-eyed. 
Their plump, well-rounded forms are clad in long gowns 
of white linen so beautifully embroidered in silk that 
one dress requires many months' work. The main part 
of their costume is much like a lady's nightgown. The 
gown falls to the feet, being open at the front in a narrow 
slit as far down as the breast. Over the gowns they 
wear sleeveless coats of dark red stripes and cover their 
heads with shawls of linen embroidered in silk. Each 
girl has necklaces of coins and a headdress decorated with 
coins of silver or gold. They do not cover their faces, and 
their features are usually refined. They are very intelli- 
gent, and in trading with them I find that they generally 
get the best of the bargain. 



148 




The Samaritans dress in white for the Feast of the Passover on their 
holy hill of Mt. Gerizim. where lambs are killed as in the days of Aaron. 
They are very poor and greatly despised by the orthodox Jews 



Pulling tares from the wheat is the children's task. If they are not 
removed the bread will be bitter 




The camel blubbers and bawls as his hair is clipped off to make tents for 

his master 



CHAPTER XIX 



AMONG THE SAMARITANS 

I HAVE just had an interview with a lineal descend- 
ant of Aaron, the brother of Moses. I refer to 
Jacob, the high priest of the Samaritans. He be- 
longs to the tribe of the Levites, who in ancient 
times were at the head of the priesthood, and he claims 
a genealogical tree reaching from that day to this. His 
family has lived in Palestine for more than three thousand 
years, and high priest has succeeded high priest until 
this man took the position at the age of fifteen, succeed- 
ing his childless uncle. He is now almost eighty, and he 
looks, I imagine, as Aaron and Moses may have looked in 
the latter part of their lives. Over six feet tall, he has 
the face and form of a prophet. His long beard falls 
down upon his chest and his scholarly face is refined and 
spiritual looking. 

I met Jacob here at Nablus on the site of old Shechem, 
within a stone's throw of the well where Christ talked 
with the woman of Samaria. It is not far from a farm 
which Abraham owned, and about on the spot where 
Joshua gathered together the tribes of Israel and read 
them the law of Moses. 

Our conversation took place in the heart of the city in 
the synagogue of the Samaritans. I had to go through 
vaulted passageways and cave-like streets to reach it. 
I had an interpreter with me, and as we talked the high 

149 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

priest showed me what he said were the original parch- 
ments of the five books of Moses as they were written by 
Abou, the son of Ben Hassan, the son of Eleazar, who, 
you remember, was one of the two sons of Aaron by 
Elisheba, his wife. The high priest tells me that these 
five manuscripts were written only twelve years after the 
Israelites came into the Promised Land, and that they 
are now nearly four thousand years old. They are the 
oldest Bible manuscripts in existence. They are written 
in the Hebrew of the times of Moses, upon long sheets of 
parchment about two feet in width. The scrolls are 
rolled upon three rods each tipped with a silver knob as 
big as a teacup, and they can be rolled and unrolled as 
they are read. The ink is still clear and the letters are 
distinct although the parchment is yellow with age. 
The manuscript is treasured by the Samaritans, being 
kept in a brass case inlaid with gold. It is said to have 
been dug up about three hundred years ago, and has 
formed a subject of controversy among oriental scholars. 
The Samaritans believe that it was written by the grand- 
son of Aaron, as the high priest here claims; but the Jews 
reject it as false, denouncing the Samaritans as pagan out- 
casts from the tribes of the Children of Israel. 

I was surprised to find that there were any Samaritans 
living. I had supposed that they had been swallowed up 
by the people of other faiths. I find, however, that there 
are about two hundred in Nablus, and that they practise 
the same religion as they did when Christ came. 

They annually celebrate the feasts of the Passover and 
Pentecost on Mount Gerizim. These feasts are different 
from those of the latter-day Jews. At the time of Jesus 
the Feast of the Passover was eaten reclining and as 

150 



AMONG THE SAMARITANS 

though at the end of a journey rather than at the begin- 
ning. The Samaritans eat their Passover with their shoes 
bound upon their feet and staves in their hand as though 
ready to start out on their wanderings in the wilderness. 

They do this on the top of the mountain, going up there 
en masse and camping in tents. They smear the blood 
of the sacrifice upon the tents to commemorate the pas- 
sage of the angel of death over the houses of Israel. They 
dress in white garments and kill the animals which are 
burnt according to the methods in use when Aaron 
lived. The sacrifice consists of buck lambs each of which 
is carefully examined that it may be without wound or 
blemish. At a given signal the throats of the lambs are 
cut, and at the same time some of the blood is caught in 
tin tubs and smeared over the tents. As the blood flows 
the people shout out again and again the words " There 
is but one God." At the same time there is a service, 
beginning with a hymn praising Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and followed by a prayer of thanksgiving. 

The meat for the sacrifice is cooked over a fire in the 
earth. As soon as the animals are killed they are scalded 
and the wool is pulled off. The entrails are removed and 
salted. A pole is thrust through each lamb, and it is 
laid on the hot coals of a fire made in a trench. The meat 
is then covered with brush and earth. As it cooks, the 
people continue to pray, and keep on praying until the 
sunset approaches. At ten minutes after sunset they be- 
gin to eat the meat, throwing the bones into the fire with- 
out breaking them. 

In my talk with the high priest he contended that the 
Samaritans were the only true Israelites, and spoke of 
the prophet Samuel as a sorcerer. He paid his respects to 

151 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



the Jews in no measured terms. He gave me a little book 
he had written concerning the religion of the Samaritans, 
and at the close was by no means averse to a present of 
silver for which he thanked me in a dignified way. After 
1 returned to my camp on the outside of Nablus some of 
his followers brought me his photograph and a model of 
the five books of Moses which they offered to sell for a 
song. The Samaritans are exceedingly poor and are de- 
spised by both Moslems and Jews. 

It was at Jacob's Well, not far from Nablus, that 
Christ met the Samaritan woman and told her of the water 
of which, if one drinketh, he shall never thirst, but there 
" shall be in him a well of water springing up into ever- 
lasting life." You will find the story in the fourth chap- 
ter of St. John. This well is one of the holy sites of 
Palestine about which there can be no doubt. The 
village of Sychar corresponds to the village of Askar, 
which stands on Mount Ebal, perhaps a thousand feet 
away from the well where the Samaritan woman lived. 
The well itself lies just below the road from Jerusalem. 
I went through an olive orchard to reach it. It is sur- 
rounded by a wall and is in the middle of a garden now 
owned by the Greek Church, which has made it a resting 
place for pilgrims. Over it they have built a stone chapel 
where services are held several times every day. 

Some of the priests went with us down the steps to the 
well. It lies right in the floor of the chapel and is about 
three feet in diameter, built up with stones. One of the 
monks brought a pan tied to a rope in such a way that 
it remained level. Upon this he placed a lighted candle 
and then slowly lowered it into the well. It descended 
perhaps sixty feet before it came to the water. The sill 

152 



AMONG THE SAMARITANS 

of the well is of marble and shows the marks of the ropes 
which for ages have been let down into it. It is some 
distance above the floor and may have been the original 
stone upon which Christ sat at that weary hour of noon. 

Jacob's Well has been known and visited by pilgrims 
for many years. It probably used to be even with the 
surface of the earth, but the debris and earth-washings 
from the mountains near by have filled up the valley, and 
it is now considerably below the present ground level. 
Excavations have uncovered in the garden the remains 
of a church which was built over the well some fifteen 
hundred years ago. I found immense granite columns 
lying in the garden as well as many pieces of the stone 
wall of the church. 

While I was here a party of travellers conducted by one 
of the great tourist agencies arrived. They were Amer- 
icans "doing" the Holy Land at so much per day, and 
they were bound to get the worth of their money. One 
I shall never forget. He had such a gigantic frame that 
I shall call him Goliath. When the party went down to 
the well the services in the chapel had just begun, and 
after pointing out the hole in the floor, the guide brought 
them out. As they came into the churchyard I heard 
Goliath remark: 

"I ain't satisfied." 

"About what?" said the guide. 

"I ain't satisfied about that well. How do I know 
there's a well there?" 

"You saw it," said the guide. 

"Naw, I only saw a hole in the floor. How do I know 
there's a well? How do I know it has water? I tell you 
I ain't satisfied. Here I come five thousand miles to 

153 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



see Jacob's Well, and how can I prove that I've saw 
it?" 

The man protested so much that the guide took him 
back, stopped the service, and had them let down the 
candle. Further than that, he brought up some of the 
water which Goliath drank at a gulp. I have run across 
this huge doubting Thomas before on the trip. He 
would not believe in the spot where our Lord was bap- 
tized in the Jordan, saying that the banks were too steep, 
and that if he couldn't crawl down them no one, not 
even John the Baptist, could do so. 

It took me just one day to come from Jerusalem to 
Shechem. My outfit was a three-horse team harnessed 
to an American wagon. The horses were good, and we 
drove up hill and down on the trot. We started at Jaffa 
Gate, passed the Place of the Skull, where General Gor- 
don thought the Saviour was crucified, and then crossed 
the valley of Kedron. We climbed Mount Scopus, 
which joins Olivet, and rode under the hill on top of which 
was Mizpah, where Samuel was buried and Saul was 
publicly chosen King of the Jews. There is a mosque on 
that spot and the place is holy to Jews, Christians, 
and Moslems alike, all of whom worship at Samuel's 
tomb. Mizpah lies on a peak about three thousand feet 
above the Mediterranean, and on one of the highest of 
the Judean mountains. Here an army of crusaders 
stood with Richard the Lion-Hearted and got their first 
sight of Jerusalem. As they looked King Richard knelt 
down and thus prayed: 

"O Lord God, I pray Thee that I may never again 
see Thy Holy City if I may not recover it from the 
hands of thine enemies." 

154 



AMONG THE SAMARITANS 

That prayer was uttered seven centuries ago when 
Jerusalem had already been in the hands of the Moham- 
medans for about six hundred years. 

The road we took to Samaria was the one over which 
came the boy Christ and the Holy Family when they 
travelled up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. It 
is one of the highways of the Holy Land, and is still trav- 
elled by thousands. About ten miles beyond Mount 
Scopus we stopped at Beeroth, a stone village surrounded 
by green orchards of figs and pomegranates. Tradition 
says that Nablus is the place where Joseph and Mary as 
they were returning to Nazareth discovered that their 
twelve-year-old boy was not with them and went back 
to find Him teaching the wise men in the temple. 

A little farther on we came to Bethel where the Benja- 
mites lived, where Abraham reared an altar and called 
on the name of the Lord, and where Jacob took stones for 
his pillow and dreamed that he saw the ladder extending 
to heaven and the angels ascending and descending there- 
on. The name Bethel, which means the House of God, 
has been changed to Beitin. It is a poor stone village 
of about five hundred people, with a ruined tower and a 
church. 

Shiloh, just off the road a little farther on toward Sa- 
maria, is now called Seilun, and, as Jeremiah prophesied, 
it is nothing but ruins. Where it stood is a mound cov- 
ered with debris, broken columns, and rubbish, so that 
one is reminded of the passage: "But go ye now unto 
. . . Shiloh . . . and see what I did to it for 
the wickedness of my people Israel/' 

Nevertheless, Shiloh is one of the most interesting spots 
of the country. Here Eli dwelt and here Hannah came 

155 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



every year with a new coat for her little son Samuel, 
whom she had given up to the Lord. It was here that 
Joshua divided the land and the Philistines stole the 
Ark of the Covenant. 

I am surprised at the caravans which are continually 
crossing these Palestine mountains. There seems to be 
a great trade north and south, and the roads are full of 
odd-looking people. On my way here I saw crowds of 
men and women on donkeys coming up to Jerusalem. 
Some were from Galilee, others from Damascus, and not a 
few from the mountains of Lebanon. One crowd told us 
that its people were Mohammedans, and that they were 
making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the tomb of 
Moses. There were many women among them. They 
sat astride upon donkeys and some of them carried babies 
in their arms. 

We passed many camels. Some were loaded with 
white building stone slung in a network of rope on 
each side of their humps. They were carrying the stone 
to Jerusalem. Others were ridden by women and men. 
I saw one with two veiled women clad all in black on its 
back and two boxes below them, each box holding a baby. 

Another party was composed of Samaritan women on 
their way to a Moslem festival. They were red haired 
and as straight as royal palm trees. They carried their 
baggage in bundles on top of their heads and walked sin- 
gle file. Behind them were women from Lebanon walk- 
ing barefooted and singing in Arabic. They were tattooed 
on lips, chin, and cheeks, and their bare heads were frowsy 
and dusty. They were clad in long cotton gowns em- 
broidered with red. Only a few were good looking and 
all seemed prematurely old. 

156 




But the Jewish colonists here lost no time in adopting modern farm 
machinery on their lands, with most gratifying results 




The sheep that was lost is found by the roadside, and the shepherd is 
all smiles. At night, several shepherds will gather their sheep in one 
place. In the morning each calls to his own charges, who know his voice 
and will always come to him 



AMONG THE SAMARITANS 

I am now living in my tents outside this old town of 
Shechem. My camp faces Mount Ebal, and above me is 
Gerizim, the holy hill of the Samaritans. It is very 
near the spot where the laws of Moses were read by 
Joshua to the assembled Children of Israel. The country 
is in the shape of a great amphitheatre of which the hills 
form the walls. These hills are, it is said, a natural 
sounding board, so that one can talk on one mountain 
and be heard on the other, and for this reason the place 
was chosen for reading the laws. 

Shechem, or Nablus, is one of the oldest towns in his- 
tory. It was founded long before Jerusalem was built 
and even before Jacob's time. It is within about six 
miles of the city of Samaria, where Ahab had his ivory 
palace and where Herod the Great owned a royal man- 
sion. Here, so it is said, he gave that birthday party at 
which his stepdaughter Salome danced. You remember 
the story. Her dancing, which I doubt not was that of 
the nautch girl, so delighted King Herod that he told her 
she should have whatever she asked, even to the half of 
his kingdom. She thereupon, as her mother insisted, de- 
manded the head of John the Baptist, who was lying in 
prison near by, and this bloody gift was brought in on 
a great plate or charger. 

There is a Spanish legend that Salome, as divine pun- 
ishment for causing the murder of John the Baptist, was 
herself beheaded some years later. According to the 
story, she married a Roman general and went to live in 
Spain. While skating on a river there she fell in, and 
her body is said to have struck the edge of the ice with 
such force as to sever her neck, and her head went skid- 
ding over the frozen surface. 

157 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The old town of Samaria has long since fallen to ruin. 
Its site is a mound with some broken pillars and other 
debris lying near it and an olive orchard not far away in 
which more of the columns are still to be seen. 

As for Nablus, it thrives, and is one of the liveliest 
towns in the Holy Land. It is the chief commercial cen^ 
tre between Damascus and Jerusalem, and its population 
of thirty thousand is almost entirely Mohammedan. 
There are some Jewish merchants, but neither Jews nor 
Christians are much welcomed. I have been told to 
watch out as I go through its narrow, filthy streets and 
to take care not to provoke any one. Several times the 
boys have thrown stones at our party, and men spit as 
we pass them. People yell out "Nazarenes" at us, and 
my guide refuses to let me photograph them, saying 
picture-taking would surely get us into trouble. The city 
is so fanatical that even the Christian women go about 
with veils over their faces. The English nurse who is 
working here in the Charity Hospital is veiled like a 
Mohammedan when she goes out on the street. Other- 
wise she would cause much comment, and her reputation 
and work would be ruined. 



.58 



CHAPTER XX 



FARMING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 

I GIVE you to-day some bits of Palestine out of doors. 
Within the past few weeks, keeping away from the 
cities and towns, I have watched the shepherds and 
farmers. I have seen the real Palestine, with the 
same sky, the same rocks and hills, and the same carpet 
of wild flowers as in the days of our Lord. I have talked 
with the farmers in the fields, have ridden side by side 
with the modern Balaam as he climbed the hills on his 
ass, and have even put my hand to ploughs such as were 
used in the times of the Scriptures, and with a goad have 
pricked on the bullocks and donkeys as they turned up 
the sod. 

The Palestine of the Bible was a land of the farmer. 
The Children of Israel and their leaders were brought up 
or worked on the farm. Abraham had numerous sheep 
and so had Isaac and Jacob. Saul was the son of old 
Farmer Kish, and he was hunting his father's asses when 
he was met by Samuel, the prophet, who gave him a 
kingdom. David was watching the sheep when Farmer 
Jesse, his father, sent him to the battle, where with his 
sling he killed the mighty Goliath. Lot was one of the 
richest farmers the Jordan Valley has known, and as for 
Job, who lived in old Uz, he was the cattle king of his 
time, owning seven thousand sheep, three thousand 
camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she 

159 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

asses. It was in one farm village, Bethlehem, that our 
Saviour was born, and in another farming settlement, 
Nazareth, that He grew up to manhood. A great part of 
His life was spent in going about among the shepherds and 
farmers, and in His preaching most of the examples and 
figures in His parables were drawn from things of the soil. 

The most common sight out of doors in the Holy Land 
is the sheep. They are everywhere. You find them on 
the rich plains where the Philistines lived; they feed 
among the rocks on the slopes of the Judean mountains, 
and spot the wilderness all the way down to Jericho; 
they graze on every part of Samaria and Galilee and 
almost everywhere on the plain of Esdraelon. They are 
always watched over by shepherds who often drive them 
to new feeding grounds. The greater part of this country 
is mountainous. Limestone rocks cover the soil, which 
is so thin that if you could pare it off for a depth of eight 
inches there would be nothing but stone. It is different 
in the plains and the valleys, but the hills are terraces of 
rock covered with boulders and sprinkled here and there 
with patches of earth. Yet the least bit of soil will grow 
luxuriant grass, and the sheep seem to grow fat on the 
stones. 

I remember some flocks I saw on my way to the Jor- 
dan. They were composed of heavy- wooled animals 
with tails of fat hanging down like aprons behind them. 
The best of them weighed two hundred pounds each, and 
the average was fatter and finer than the best sheep of 
America. Some were white- wooled and some brown, and 
some had brown heads and white bodies. I have tasted 
the mutton; it is excellent, being the choicest meat to 
be had at the hotels. 

1 60 



The colonists terrace the hillsides to hold back the soil with stones 
cleared from the fields, once thought too rocky for cultivation. Many 
neglected and treeless hills have been utterly denuded of earth by the 
rains of centuries 



Almonds have proved a paying proposition for Jewish colonists in 
Palestine, where they have long been cultivated. When Jacob desired 
his sons to take into Egypt of the best fruits of Canaan, he mentioned the 
almond 



FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 

The shepherds are about the same all over Palestine, 
kindly eyed men with fair faces bronzed by the sun. 
They stay out all day on the hills with the sheep, driving 
them into the villages at night. Each shepherd has his 
staff and his scrip, a little bag of dried skin. He uses 
a sling as David did to send a pebble just in front of any 
straying sheep so as to turn it back. The strings of the 
slings are of goat hair, and the pad for the stone is of the 
same material, often made with a slit in the middle so 
that when a pebble is put in the sling fits close like a bag. 
Such slings are now used in fights between the boys of 
the villages, who practise to see who can throw stones 
the farthest. 

The wool of the Palestine sheep is especially fine. It 
brings a higher price than that of Damascus, and some- 
thing like a million dollars' worth of it is exported a year. 
The shearing is done by hand, and much of the wool is 
sold unwashed. Some is washed after shearing, the work 
being done by women. 

Nearly every flock of sheep has its goats. They are 
usually black so they can be picked out from the sheep 
at a great distance. Some of the goats produce excellent 
milk, the best as much as three quarts a day. 

There is a great deal in the Bible about the sheepfolds. 
These are common in Palestine. In the villages they are 
often corrals and sometimes they are caves on the hills. 
The village folds are closed at night, and the shepherds 
keep the keys. Those of the mountains are usually open 
and the sheep go in and out as they will. 

In some parts of the country the shepherds pasture their 
flocks separately by day, but at evening several of them 
often bring their sheep together in a large open field or a 

161 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

spot sheltered from the winds. Then each of the four 
or five men will take turns at keeping watch while the 
others sleep, curled up in their sheepskins. The shep- 
herds to whom the "glad tidings" came on the first 
Christmas Eve were thus guarding their flocks by night. 
In the morning each shepherd calls out to his sheep, and 
they, knowing his voice, come to him until he has his 
whole flock around him again. They will pay no heed 
to the same call if it is uttered by a stranger or another 
shepherd. Often to make sure his sheep are all there and 
also to see that they are all right the shepherd causes 
them to pass under his rod between him and a rock. 
He can thus count them, and if one is limping or sickly 
he can pull it out of line with the crook of his staff and 
give it special care. 

. The Palestine shepherd does not use his staff to drive 
his charges, for he always goes before with the sheep fol- 
lowing him. The club or crook he carries is for protec- 
tion and defence of his flock. If they are frightened the 
sight of the crook on his shoulder calms their panic. One 
is reminded of the words of the Psalmist: "Thy rod and 
thy staff they comfort me." 

One of the most important duties of the shepherd is to 
water the flock. He does this at streams or wells. At 
the wells the women draw the water for the sheep as they 
did in Bible times. They use bags of goatskin untanned. 
The skin is taken almost whole from the goats, and the 
legs and other openings are tied up so that it will hold 
water. One hole is left at the throat into which the 
water is poured. The water for the household is carried 
in such bags, a network of ropes being wrapped around 
a skin so that it can be rested upon the back, the bag 

162 



FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 



being supported by a rope around the forehead. The 
water-bag of the ordinary size, when filled, weighs at 
least fifty pounds. The women go along with their 
heads bent far over, carrying water to their village homes. 
They do this day after day all their lives long. This is 
one of the most common sights of the Holy Land. 

Indeed these Palestine peasants are strong men and 
women. The men bear astonishing weights, and nobody 
thinks anything of walking twenty miles and more in a 
day. One naturally asks as to their diet. This is largely 
rice, vegetables, nuts, and the whole-meal unleavened 
bread of the country baked in flat cakes as in Bible days. 
Meat is a rare luxury. The Arabic name for bread is 
aish, which means life, and to the peasants of the Holy 
Land it is the staff of life. They have even a sort of 
reverence for it. No one will trample a fallen crumb into 
the dust, and even the smallest bit dropped or thrown 
away by a careless child will be picked up and lodged in 
a crack of a stone or wall so the birds may get it. To- 
matoes, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and egg- 
plant are common vegetables. There is a saying of the 
eggplant that there are so many different ways of pre- 
paring it that if during the eggplant season a woman 
says to her husband, "I know not what to provide for 
dinner/' he has sufficient cause for divorcing her. 

Grapes not quite ripe are much relished when eaten 
with salt. Cucumbers take much the place of apples 
with us. Coffee is considered a necessity. It is bought 
in the raw berry and a housekeeper is judged by her skill 
in roasting and preparing it. Even if a family cannot 
afford it for every day it must be on hand for guests. 
Men often carry some coffee berries in their pockets for 

163 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

use at friendly gatherings, and wherever men meet for 
business or ceremony coffee is expected. 

The Palestine of to-day is a land of donkeys and cam- 
els. I suppose the latter are about the same as those 
owned by Job. They are raised in Beersheba, where 
the people live largely on their milk. The camel is the 
freight car of Palestine. In going over the country I 
have seen many caravans of them. On the way to 
Zammarin we passed some camels which the Bedouin 
drivers were shearing. They were clipping the wool from 
the kneeling beasts, which cried and moaned and now and 
then uttered shrieks as the shears nipped off bits of their 
flesh. Not a few actually shed tears. The wool of these 
camels is woven into a coarse cloth used for making the 
coverings of the Bedouin tents. 

As far as I can see the camels of the Holy Land have 
no easy job. They carry loads of three or four hundred 
pounds each, and on short trips their packs are left on 
day and night. They begin to work at three years, and 
often last until they are twenty-five years of age. 

The donkeys are much cheaper than camels. They 
are the draft animals of the poor, and are used by the 
farmers for carrying vegetables and wood into market. 
I see them loaded with olive roots on their way to Je- 
rusalem, and now and then pass a donkey caravan, every 
animal carrying a bag of grain which has been balanced 
upon his back and which the driver holds there as he goes 
up the steep hills. 

Palestine is often called "the land of milk and honey." 
This it was in the past, and this, so far at least as the honey 
is concerned, it may be again. I have already referred 
to the delicious honey served at the hotel in Jerusalem. 

164 



_ - — - ' 



With cypresses and palms Jewish colonists have beautified this plan- 
tation near Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. The Jews answer the objec- 
tions of the Arabs to their settlements by pointing out how they have 
"made the desert bloom like the rose" 



Carpenters of Nazareth and their shops are much the same to-day as 
when Joseph plied his trade and the boy Jesus helped him. Nazareth is 
a mountain village of some eight thousand people — Greeks, Moslems, 
Maronites, Roman Catholics, and about a hundred Protestants 



FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 

Modern bee-keeping was started in Palestine by an enter- 
prising Swiss in one of the Jewish colonies. His bees 
were kept in hives made of terra-cotta jars, which were 
moved to different pastures several times during a sea- 
son so as to get the benefit of different kinds of flowers. 
The average yield of honey per hive is about one hundred 
pounds, and the product is delicious. 

As to the Palestine flowers, I cannot describe them. 
There are said to be more than three thousand varieties. 
Crossing the upper plains of Sharon I rode through great 
fields of daisies as yellow as buttercups. There were 
greenish-white flowers carpeting the roadside, and among 
them poppies, gladioli, and lilies. In the gardens at 
Zammarin are geraniums as large as rose bushes and on 
the sides of the hills wild flowers of every description. 
There are yellow violets, and pink and blue blossoms 
whose names I know not. There is also a red flower 
called "the blood drop of Christ.' ' It is said to have 
sprung up on the spots where dropped the blood of our 
Saviour as He carried the cross. In a single day's travel 
over the Samaritan mountains I counted thirty-five dif- 
ferent wild flowers. At one place I saw what looked 
like piles of Bermuda onions pulled up along the road- 
side. There were bushels of them, and I supposed they 
had been spilled out by a broken-down caravan. "Those 
are lily bulbs which the farmers have dug out of the 
fields," said my guide, and farther on I saw the men dig- 
ging. The lilies are yellow and white and grow wild. 
"They toil not, neither do they spin," but they cause the 
farmer to toil and are one of the pests he has to get rid of. 

There are but few farms of large size in the Holy Land. 
The chief cultivated patches on the mountains are those 

.65 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

which have been cleared of stones. They are often no 
bigger than a parlour rug and seldom contain more than 
three or four acres. Such fields frequently have stone 
walls about them. Down in the valleys and on the plains 
of the Philistines the farms are not separated by fences 
and are much larger. They are planted to wheat, beans, 
and barley, and grow luxuriant crops. One of the inter- 
esting scenes of the wheat fields is often referred to in the 
Bible. This is pulling the tares, the seeds of which, if 
left, will make the flour bitter. Gangs of girls are en- 
gaged in this business all over Palestine. Each gang 
works under an overseer, and the girls bend half double 
as they pull the weeds from the wheat. It is said that a 
farmer's enemies even to-day sometimes sow tares in 
his wheat, just as in the parable. 

Speaking of wheat, it is claimed that Palestine is one 
of the places in which that grain originated. There is 
wild wheat here to-day, and the agricultural experts are 
investigating to find out what can be done with the 
other wild grains found in different parts of this country. 

The ploughs of the Holy Land are about the same now as 
those used in the days of the Bible. They are crude af- 
fairs, made of wood tipped with iron, to which oxen and 
bullocks are yoked with a rough piece of wood fastened 
to the necks of the animals. Sometimes the yoke is 
tilted at an angle of forty-five degrees, reaching from the 
neck of a camel down to that of a donkey. Donkeys and 
cows are also harnessed together, and bullocks and 
camels. The plough ends in a point like that of a pickaxe. 
It only scratches the soil, and nowhere goes very deep. 
The furrows are so narrow that many ploughs are required 
for large fields. The ploughmen wear long gowns, and on 

1 66 



FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY 



their heads are cloths bound round with rope. They 
wear rough shoes or go barefoot. 

Much of the land in the mountainous parts is so rocky 
that ploughs are not used. The earth is broken up with 
mattocks or hoes and all the crops are cultivated by hand. 
Nevertheless, this limestone soil is so rich that it will 
often produce several crops in one year. Figs, olives, and 
other fruits flourish. There are olive orchards every- 
where. They cover the sides of the hills and are near 
every farm village. I was hardly out of sight of them 
on my way from Shechem to Mount Carmel. A great 
quantity of oil is exported. 

The curse of the Palestine farmer has long been the 
Mohammedan tax gatherer and assessor. These men 
have squeezed the heart out of both the farmer and his 
crop. The tax assessors have gone out over the coun- 
try in the blossom time of the olive orchards and levied 
on each tree the cash tax to be paid no matter how the 
crop finally turned out. The olive harvest often fails in 
Palestine, so rather than pay unjust and excessive taxes 
the discouraged farmers have sometimes simply cut down 
trees and sold both wood and roots. 

It is not only the olive orchards that have suffered 
from this kind of taxation. One eighth of the annual 
yield of every crop has been taken from the people. The 
custom of selling to the highest bidder the right to col- 
lect the taxes in a given district has, of course, made 
things worse. In their determination to get back the 
money they paid the government and a handsome profit 
for themselves besides, these men have had no mercy 
on the farmer. The bundles of grain brought to the 
village threshing-floors and put up in stacks of eight 

i6 7 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



have been closely watched by the tax gatherers and their 
agents. 

Besides these farm taxes, the people have suffered from 
a head tax of two dollars on every male member of the 
community from birth to death, from the salt tax, from 
taxes on imports, and on everything that a man eats, 
drinks, or wears. 

Once freed from oppressive taxation and its farmers 
given a fair chance, there is no doubt that Palestine will 
produce many times what it has done under Turkish 
rule. 



1 68 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 

JEWS in the Holy Land are bringing to life again 
the Palestine of the past. They are proving that 
their ancient "land of milk and honey " can be 
made to bloom and prosper. Gathered together 
in colonies, they are introducing modern farming methods 
and showing what can be done under proper conditions. 

The trim Jewish villages built by the colonists are a 
refreshing sight in contrast to the dirty Arab settle- 
ments and their more or less desolate surroundings. 
The energy and alertness of many of the settlers are also 
noticeable as compared with the natives who have been 
content for centuries to do no more than their fathers 
have done before them and in the same ways. 

At first most of the Jews came to Palestine only for the 
sake of ending their days in the land of their fathers. 
They were a sort of resident pilgrims. Others came to 
get away from oppression and persecution. Gradually 
the success of the farm colonies attracted the attention 
of Jews all over the world, and regularly organized move- 
ments for planting Jewish settlements in the Holy Land 
sprang up. More and more colonists began to come 
because they wanted to get on the land and saw in Pales- 
tine chances of greater freedom and success in life than 
in the crowded streets and small shops of European 
cities. Colonies were set up under all sorts of schemes 

169 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



and plans, and while there have been some failures, many 
have been quite successful. 

When groups of colonists first come out they fre- 
quently live in tents, and even before they build perma- 
nent houses set to work starting nurseries, planting 
trees, draining swamps, picking up stones, and otherwise 
preparing the land for cultivation. Millions and mil- 
lions of stones have been picked up from the rock-strewn 
hillsides of Palestine, piled into baskets, and then carried 
off and laid up to form terraces to keep the soil from 
being washed away or to make walls like those so often 
seen on New England farms. 

There is a tree here called the "Jews' tree," because 
the colonists have planted so many of them on their 
lands. This is the eucalyptus, first brought to Pales- 
tine by the Jewish settlers. As this tree absorbs a great 
deal of moisture it is a good one to plant in swampy land, 
and, as has been found in other countries, by helping to 
drain the marshes it is a factor in keeping down malaria. 
Besides giving shade in this land of glaring sun, it fur- 
nishes wood for orange boxes and may in time be 
grown to such an extent as to increase the scanty fuel 
supply. 

Some of these farm colonies are in Galilee, some in 
Judea, and a very large one is not far from the seaport 
of Jaffa. 

The latter is known as the Rishon le Zion, or "the first 
colony of Zion/' It supports a village of about twelve 
hundred people, who cultivate three thousand acres, on 
which are grown almonds, oranges, and other fruits, es- 
pecially grapes. This colony annually makes millions 
of gallons of wine and it exports great quantities of Jaffa 

170 



THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 



oranges. I am told that its wine cellars are the third lar- 
gest in the world. It was founded by the Rothschilds to 
give persecuted Russian Jews a refuge, and afterward 
managed by the Hirsch colonization fund. It is run at a 
profit. The other colonies are similar to it, and some of 
them nearly as large. Each has a school, a drug store, a 
hospital, and a synagogue. 

The Sir Moses Montefiore colonies and schools at Je- 
rusalem are doing good work, and the French-Jewish 
Society, which has a million members, maintains a number 
of schools, including manual training schools for girls and 
boys. If the students do well they are given capital to 
start out with and are established in little shops of their 
own. In some of these schools the children are so poor 
that they are furnished one meal a day and one suit of 
clothes every year. 

Another colony, Tel Aviv, or "The Hill of the Ears 
of Grain/' has a high school graduates from which have 
been admitted to Columbia and other American univer- 
sities. The only language spoken in this school is He- 
brew, which is being revived as the language of a great 
many of the Jews who have settled in the Promised Land. 
The colony of Gederah is celebrated for its large flock of 
doves, which are the common property of the community. 
Rechoboth, founded in 1890, was the first colony to in- 
troduce Jewish workmen with success. 

While the Jews of ancient Palestine were farmers, it is 
now nearly two thousand years since they have had any 
land of their own to develop. When they were driven 
out of their country by their conquerors, they were scat- 
tered over the world, and took refuge in the cities where 
most of them have been living ever since. There they 

171 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



became a people of traders and shopkeepers, and because 
of this fact many have believed that the Jewish colonies 
in the Holy Land could never succeed. 

The Arabs in Palestine have a saying that the love of 
trading is in the blood of a Jew and that he can't help 
wanting to be a merchant any more than he can help 
wanting to possess the Holy Land. They say that a few 
years after coming to Palestine a Jewish colonist will be 
found looking out of the back windows of his house at a 
gang of Arabs doing his farm work, while in his front 
windows he displays, not his farm products, but goods he 
has bought for sale. Many of the Jewish settlers did, in 
fact, find it difficult to take up farm work, and were in- 
clined to hire Arabs who would work for lower wages 
than Jews. This led to friction between Jews and 
Arabs, but now more and more of the colonists are doing 
their own farm work, road making, carpentering, and 
other manual labour. The colonists have also learned 
that the most scientific farming methods pay best, and 
are developing schools where their young people are 
taught how to get the most out of the land. 
^ The Jews of other lands are liberal in their gifts to the 
Jews of Palestine, and, besides helping to set up the colo- 
nies, have established schools and hospitals in and about 
Jerusalem. One of the sources from which money comes 
for the settlement and advancement of the Jewish colo- 
nies is a fund collected from the synagogues of the 
United States, which is regularly sent from New York 
to the Holy Land. Jews all over our country contribute 
to it. 

There have been several American colonies in the 
Holy Land, but the only one that has made any impres- 

172 



Nazareth lies in a little amphitheatre of hills with a rugged arena. There 
is hardly a level spot in the whole town 




The boys of Nazareth are friendly, but in fanatical Nablus they throw 
stones at Christians 



THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 



sion or lasted for any long time is that known for some 
years as the SpafTordites. It was founded by Dr. and 
Mrs. SpafTord, who belonged to a Presbyterian church 
in Chicago. They left the church and came to Jerusalem, 
saying that they intended to devote their wealth and their 
lives to working for Christ in the Holy Land. They per- 
suaded fourteen adults and five children to come with 
them, and together they founded a colony which has 
lasted until now. 

That was 1881. To-day the colony has members from 
all parts of the Union. There are a number from New 
England, some from the South, several from Kansas and 
Nebraska, and quite a delegation from Philadelphia and 
Chicago. I have talked with them about their beliefs. 
They say they are Christians and that they believe in the 
Bible interpreted as it is printed. They take the Golden 
Rule as their motto and try to live up to it. They say 
they have no hobbies, and that their Christianity is a 
practical faith. 

This colony lives together as a community, its mem- 
bers holding all things in common. At first they threw 
their money into a common fund, and lived without 
working. Finding, however, that this fund was soon 
spent, they established a business of their own and are 
now self-supporting. They have their own house out- 
side the walls, where they live very comfortably, eating 
at a common table with worship morning and evening. 
They frequently take Americans in as paying guests, 
charging less than the prevailing hotel rates for much 
better quarters. They also have a bakery from which 
they sell bread and cake; a shoe shop, and an art school, 
where girls are taught painting and drawing. They have 

173 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



factories where they make desks, boxes, and other beau- 
tiful things of olive wood; and a weaving establishment 
where cloths of wool and linen are made. 

Some years ago they also established what is known as 
the American store. This is near the Jaffa Gate inside 
Jerusalem, and right on the way from that gate to the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

This store is about the only one-price establishment in 
the Holy Land. In all other places three times what is 
expected is asked, and one has to dicker and bargain and 
beat down the merchants. In the American store one 
can buy photographs and slides of the Holy Land, brass 
work from Damascus, rugs from Persia and Turkey, and 
any sort of curio made in the country. 

During my stay in Jerusalem I several times visited 
this colony, and was delighted with the peace, quiet, and 
brotherly love which seem to prevail. Its members are 
well bred and intelligent; and as far as I can see they 
practise what they preach. An interesting feature is 
their grace before meals. This is always sung at the 
table by both members and guests. 

One of the most interesting Jewish colonies is at Zam- 
marin on the southwest slope of Mount Carmel, where 
these notes are written. The place is about five hours* 
ride from Haifa, and a day's journey by carriage from 
Nablus. The town is owned by a Jewish colony which 
has a large tract of land given it by Baron Edward Roths- 
child of Paris. The land is high above the sea at the 
northern end of the plain of Sharon, so situated that it 
commands a view of that plain at the east and of the 
Mediterranean Sea at the west. The country about is 
covered with chunks of limestone of all shapes and sizes, 

174 



THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 



and, besides, the bedrock crops out in ledges with small 
tracts of arable land here and there. 

The Jews have taken this land, have cleared it of the 
loose rocks, and are making it bloom like a garden. They 
have some quite large fields on top of Mount Carmel, 
which is now covered with wheat waving in the wind. 
They are raising luxuriant crops of oats and beans and 
they have vineyards as thrifty as those of south France 
or the Rhine. Their olive orchards would be a credit to 
any part of Italy; and their English walnut trees bear 
like those of southern California. They are raising fine 
cattle, which they graze on the hills in the daytime and 
bring in at night. The milk is excellent, and the meat as 
tender and sweet as the corn-fed beef of Chicago. I am 
told that the land produces abundantly and that the 
colony does well. 

Zammarin is far different from the squalid Arab towns 
of Palestine. Its houses are of German architecture and 
many of its people speak German. It has a hotel run by 
an American Jew and planned upon Jewish lines. Out- 
side the door of my room is fastened a tube of olive wood 
containing the Ten Commandments, and similar tubes 
are to be found at every door of the hotel, as well as on 
the doors of every house in the place. The Jews kiss these 
tubes as they go in and out. 

Zammarin has sidewalks, and there is a tower into 
which water is pumped to supply every house. There 
is a synagogue, which is well attended, and a town hall, 
where the officials of the colony meet and decide all 
matters of local government. 

Indeed, the colony is a little republic with a president 
and other officials elected by its members. It settles its 

175 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

own disputes, and makes assessments for special taxes 
for such things as schools and village improvements. 
When Zammarin was started it was supported by Roths- 
child. Later on it was turned over to the Anglo- Israelite 
Colonization Society founded by Baron Hirsch. It was 
then supported from Europe, but this did not work and it 
is now running itself. Every family works for itself and 
has its own property. As a result the people are becom- 
ing independent. The standard of self-respect has risen, 
and all seem to be prospering. 



176 



We cross the Sea of Galilee where Christ stilled the sudden tempest 
and walked on the waters. On its shores He spoke many of His parables 
and wrought a number of His miracles 



Through the arched Gate we catch a glimpse of the ruins of ancient 
Tiberias, the once proud city of Herod, in the neighbourhood of which 
Christ spent much of his active life. For years Tiberias was the seat 
of Jewish learning 



CHAPTER XXII 



WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 

TO-DAY I am in Nazareth, the home of Christ's 
boyhood. Here He was brought as a baby after 
the flight into Egypt to escape the bloodthirsty 
Herod, and here He spent all but about four years 
of His life. The town is situated high up in the mountains 
of Galilee, within sixty miles of Jerusalem as the crow 
flies and sixty-seven miles from Bethlehem, where Jesus 
was born. It is within a day's ride on horseback of 
Mount Carmel and within four hours of Capernaum on 
the Sea of Galilee from which our Saviour called His 
apostles and where He first preached. 

Nazareth lies in a nest in the mountains. It is in a 
little amphitheatre of hills with a rough and ragged arena. 
The houses extend up the sides of the hills and there is 
hardly a level spot in the whole town. It has altogether 
less than twelve thousand inhabitants of whom about 
half are Mohammedans. The rest of the population is 
made up of Greek Catholics, Latins, and about two hun- 
dred Syrians of the Protestant faith. The town is full of 
churches and convents, and there are some great mon- 
asteries and hospices where pilgrims may stop over night. 

The homes of the people are rectangular structures, 
which look more like great stone boxes than houses. 
They are usually of one story, with a door and two win- 
dows, and most of them have flat roofs, which in the 

177 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

summer nights are used as resting and sleeping places. 
A number of the buildings are in gardens. Some have 
cactus hedges about them and others are shaded by cypress 
trees. There are many olive orchards, and figs grow here 
as luxuriantly as they did when Christ was a boy. 

The buildings of Nazareth are ugly, but as a whole the 
city and its surroundings are beautiful. I doubt whether 
there is more beautiful scenery to be found in England or 
Scotland, or even in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Vir- 
ginia, for which God has done much. There are many 
fine views. One can stand in the city or near it and look 
out over the plain of Esdraelon, and by climbing the hills 
he can see Mount Carmel, where Elijah hid the prophets 
and later on slew the false prophets of Baal. It is only a 
few hours' ride from Nazareth over the hill to the Sea of 
Galilee, where the Nazarene boys even now sometimes go 
fishing. 

I shall not soon forget a bird's-eye view I had of the town 
last night. The moon was at its full, and its great round 
silver disk changed the night into day. Its rays mel- 
lowed the yellow limestone of the houses and transformed 
them to ivory. They softened the glare of the white, 
rocky roads, and made a fairyland of the mountains and 
valleys. From the top of the hills I could see the plain of 
Esdraelon, which in its fertility vies with the Nile Valley; 
and away off at the west lay the mighty Mediterranean, 
which stretches on for two thousand miles to Gibraltar 
and the Atlantic. 

Nazareth by moonlight is wonderfully peaceful. At 
sunset all business stops, and within an hour or so after- 
ward everyone is in bed. There are few places that 
seem so far from the strife of the world. Business is 

i 7 8 



WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 



swallowed up in the beauties of nature. The scenery is 
that of old Greece, and the stars shine gloriously out of 
skies which are perfectly clear. 

The sunsets are surpassingly beautiful. The other 
night the golden beams of the sinking sun seemed to form a 
halo over this the home of our Saviour. There were many 
white clouds in the sky, which changed, first to rose and 
then to gold, the colour growing stronger and stronger, 
until the whole west was one blaze of fire and molten copper. 

Coming down into the town, after watching one of these 
sunsets, I met many Nazarene children. As I stopped 
a few minutes, the little ones gathered around me, and it 
was not hard to imagine similar groups playing in these 
streets nineteen hundred years ago with the boy Jesus. 
The little Nazarenes wore gowns of brown, red, or yellow. 
Most of them were in their bare feet; the boys had caps 
of red felt, while the girls wore handkerchiefs or shawls 
tied around their heads. All were running and dancing 
and laughing and playing. Some of the girls were quite 
pretty. I remember a rosy-cheeked baby carried by a 
roguish, bright-eyed maid of eighteen. I admired the 
baby and chucked it under the chin, telling the girl I 
would like to take it home with me to America. She 
promptly said I could have it and thrust it out toward 
me. My face fell and I ran. 

There is no doubt that this is the Nazareth of Jesus, 
and that the hills and valleys about here were hallowed 
by His footsteps. It was here that the Angel Gabriel 
appeared unto Mary when she was engaged but not yet 
married to Joseph and told her that she would be the 
mother of Jesus, and it was here that she came with Joseph 
after the flight into Egypt. She waited only until King 

179 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



Herod was dead, and then came to Nazareth, the child 
Jesus being still an infant in arms. It was from Nazareth 
that Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized by John, 
and it was here that after He had begun His work our Lord 
came and preached in the synagogue. Whereupon the 
Nazarenes cried out : 

Is not this Joseph's son? . . . And . . . they . . . 
were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city and 
led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they 
might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst 
of them went His way. 

The Roman Catholics now own what is said to be the 
site of the shop where Joseph worked as a carpenter. 
The place is in the Mohammedan quarter, not far from a 
bazaar where the Moslem merchants sit cross-legged and 
sell to the Christians. When I visited it I met Father 
Kersting, who came here to superintend excavations on 
the site of an old church built by the Crusaders. 

Under his direction a grotto was uncovered which many 
believe to be the place where Joseph had his carpenter 
shop, and where, if this is true, the little Christ must have 
played among the shavings. 

The various sects here make all sorts of claims. The 
Latins allege that they own the table upon which Christ 
supped with His disciples both before and after the 
Resurrection. It is a block of hard chalk eleven feet long 
and nine feet in breadth. In another place in the Latin 
monastery is what is known as the Angel's Chapel and the 
Chapel of the Annunciation, where the Virgin received Ga- 
briel's message. There is also an old cistern which is called 
the Kitchen of the Virgin, and in the centre of the town is 
Mary's Well, or, as it is sometimes called, Jesus's Spring, 

1 80 




Capernaum to-day is the city of prophecy fulfilled, for of it Christ said: 
"And thou, Capernaum, . . . shall be brought down to hell" 




For centuries the Jews have been city-dwellers and traders, but the 
colonists are doing the manual labour on the lands they have taken up, 
though at first they brought down on themselves the reproaches of their 
neighbours by hiring Arabs 



WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 

or Gabriel's Spring. This is undoubtedly authentic, for 
it is the only spring or watering place Nazareth now 
possesses or ever has possessed. It is therefore certain 
that the child Jesus and the Virgin frequented it, and that 
Mary came here daily for water. This is a fountain 
rather than a well. The water gushes forth in two 
streams into a stone basin, whence it flows into a stone- 
inclosed pool. There are always women with water 
jars about it, and the scenes of to-day are probably the 
same as those of Christ's time. 

Thousands of pilgrims come to Nazareth every year to 
visit the places hallowed by the Saviour, and it is also on 
the main route from the mountains of Lebanon to Je- 
rusalem. Caravan routes from Damascus to Egypt wind 
about it, and it has always been an important point on 
the chief travel routes. 

The bazaars are of about the same character as they 
were in Jesus's day. They are narrow, cave-like stores 
lighted only from the front. The merchants sit there 
walled around with goods, while the customers stand out 
in the cobblestone roadway and bargain. The streets 
are dirty and camels and Bedouins are continually mov- 
ing through them. The men wear turbans and gowns, 
and the women are veiled or unveiled, according to 
whether they are Mohammedans or Christians. 

I was interested in the mechanical work going on in 
these bazaars. I stopped in a carpenter's shop, and 
photographed a workman of just about the age Joseph 
must have been when our Lord was a boy and passed as 
his son. I asked about carpenter's wages, and was told 
they ranged from fifty cents to one dollar per day. In 
another business street I stopped awhile with the black- 

181 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

smiths who were making knives, razors, plough points, and 
the long, thin, crescent-shaped sickles used here for har- 
vesting. The sickles have teeth like a fine saw. I lin- 
gered to watch a blacksmith shoe a horse. He used a 
plate of iron the shape of the hoof about an eighth of an 
inch thick. With the exception of a hole as large as a 
finger ring in the centre, it was solid. There were three 
small holes on each side for the nails, which were driven 
into the hoof. When shod the horse's foot was entirely 
covered by iron except for the small hole in the centre. 

Since I have been here I have paid especial attention 
to the children. They are the best part of the Holy 
Land and are as full of fun and as delightful as our chil- 
dren at home. I have seen families which recall that of 
Joseph and Mary, and many boys with innocent faces 
which suggest that of Jesus. Here in Nazareth I see the 
little ones everywhere playing. There is a threshing- 
floor on one side of the town, a place where the earth has 
been stamped down and where the grain is flailed or trod- 
den out after harvest. This is one of the great play- 
grounds, where the boys come with their marbles and 
where they play ball. In one of their games the boys 
try to throw the ball so as to hit a stone mark set up for 
the purpose. They also strike the ball with a club and 
send it beyond the threshing-floor to be caught by the 
boys outside. They play blind man's buff, leap-frog, and 
hide-and-seek, and as I went through the streets the other 
day I saw two little ones rising and falling on a board 
resting on the edge of a sharp stone, making a seesaw. 

One of the games played is like our " Button, button, 
who has the button?" The boys stand in a row with 
hands folded and the one who is "it" goes along and rubs 

182 



WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 



his two hands, holding the pebble over each pair of folded 
hands and endeavouring to drop it into one without being 
caught. Then the others must guess who has the peb- 
ble. We play the same game with the button. 

Another game is known as the "tied monkey. " In 
this the boy who is "it" catches hold with one hand of 
a rope fastened to a peg in the ground while the others 
beat him with handkerchiefs or ropes in which knots are 
tied. If he can catch one of them without letting go his 
hold on the rope the boy caught takes his place. 

I observe that the boys here usually play by them- 
selves. They rather look down on their sisters, and the 
average family considers the girl of but little account. 
When a girl is born no fuss is made, but when a boy comes 
the friends of the family run through the streets crying 
out: "Good tidings! Good tidings!" The father pre- 
pares a feast, and all the friends of the family give 
presents of money for the benefit of the boy. Imme- 
diately after the child is born it is rubbed over with salt 
and then wrapped in swaddling clothes so tight that it 
cannot move. After it has been bound up thus for about 
a week, it is unfastened, washed with fresh oil, salted, 
and bound up again. This wrapping, oiling, salting, and 
re-wrapping goes on for about forty days, at the end of 
which time the child is ready to wear the ordinary cloth- 
ing of babyhood. This usually consists of one garment, 
but in the summer, if the child be poor, that is omitted, 
although a naked baby may wear a skull cap. The usual 
garment is a shirt reaching to the knees, and as the chil- 
dren grow older they may have jackets over their shirts. 

One of the important ceremonies is naming the boy. 
To the child's given name that of the father is always 

183 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



added. In olden times if the son of James was named John, 
his name would be John, son of James, but now the words 
"son of" are omitted and he is known as John James. 

I am surprised at the beauty of the Nazarene girls, and 
especially of the little ones. They have rosy cheeks and 
bright eyes and are quite as good looking as our American 
babies. They dress in bright colours and some have rows 
of coins on their headdresses and rings on their fingers. 

I see many little girls at the fountain of Mary, each 
with a jar in which to bring water home. This is the 
work of almost every woman in the land. The little ones 
are taught by beginning with a tiny jar which they 
steady on the head with the hand. As they grow older 
they use larger jars, until at last they are able to walk 
through the streets carrying four or five gallons of water 
on the head without touching the jar. This work gives 
them erect figures, and there are no stooped shoulders 
or curved spines among them. 

When a girl reaches ten or eleven years of age she be- 
gins to think of marriage, and it is not an uncommon 
thing for her to be a mother at thirteen or fourteen. 
After marriage the wife becomes a member of her hus- 
band's family, and, for a time at least, lives with her 
mother-in-law. For this reason people believe in early 
marriages, so that the girl may be trained by her hus- 
band's mother into a suitable wife when she grows up. 

I wonder if the boys of our Saviour's time studied as do 
the Nazarene boys of to-day. As half the town is Mo- 
hammedan, many of them are taught by the sheiks. 
They sit on the floor, swaying back and forth as they 
scream out the verses and texts they are trying to learn. 
The teacher is sometimes blind, but he knows the voices 

184 



WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD 



so well that when one stops he can strike with his stick 
the place where that boy should be sitting to start him 
again. In our Lord's time the Bible was probably taught in 
the same way to the Jewish children. Most of the slates 
used here are made of cast-off kerosene oil cans, the tin 
being cut into squares and pounded out flat. The 
Arabic characters are painted upon such tins with brushes 
and India ink. 

The chief study of the Mohammedan boys is the Koran, 
while the Jews learn the Psalms. At harvest time the 
schools close and the children go out into the fields, gar- 
dens, and vineyards. They are accustomed to work, and 
everywhere I go I see them herding the sheep. The boys 
use slings just as David did and are skilful in sending the 
stones just where they please. 

Some of these Palestine children are polite, but others 
are just the reverse. When the good boy comes into a 
room full of older people he goes around and kisses the 
hand of each one and places it on his forehead. He can 
be so sweet that you might think him the soul of innocence 
and piety, but take him outside and he will fight, kick, 
and scratch with his fellows. A great deal of slang is 
used, and in a quarrel the most common expressions are 
those cursing your enemy's ancestors. One boy will 
say to another, "Curse your father!" and the other will 
reply, "And your grandfather!'' And so they will go 
on to the fourth and fifth generations, each cursing the 
various branches of the other's family. Here at Naz- 
areth we find the children very polite, but at Nablus 
they threw stones at me and called me a "Nazarene," 
the name used by the Mohammedans of Samaria to ex- 
press contempt for all not of their faith. 

185 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

From Nazareth, Joseph and Mary went every year to 
Jerusalem. They tramped over the hills of Galilee and 
across the plain of Esdraelon, then climbed the moun- 
tains of Samaria. There is a trail, part of which has been 
made into a macadamized road. Such trips were usually 
made in large companies, and when I crossed Samaria a 
short time ago I met scores of these people from Galilee 
on their way to Jerusalem. The parties consisted of 
men, women, and children, most of whom were on foot. 
Now and then one found a woman riding a donkey, with 
her husband trudging beside her, and sometimes whole 
families on donkeys. It was in such a party that Jesus 
went to Jerusalem when He was about twelve years of 
age. He was then thought to be old enough to take care 
of Himself, for the Bible relates that when they departed 
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and His 
mother knew not of it. They had already gone a day's 
journey before they missed Him, and then turned back 
to find Him. Only after three days was He discovered 
in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both 
hearing them and asking them questions. 

And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and 
answers. 

And when they saw him they were amazed. And his mother said 
unto him: Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father 
and I have sought thee, sorrowing. 

And he said unto them: How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not 
that I must be about my father's business? 

And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And 
he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto 
them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God 
and man. 

1 86 



CHAPTER XXIII 



ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 

WE ARE in a fisherman's skiff on the Sea of 
Galilee. We have just left Tiberias, the 
ancient city of Herod near the southern 
end of the lake, and are on our way to 
Capernaum, that white spot which you can see on the shore 
at the north where Christ lived and preached. It seems 
strange that one can carry the whole Sea of Galilee in his 
eye. I have always thought of it as only a little less than 
an ocean, or at least as big as the largest of our great fresh- 
water lakes. The truth is that compared to Lake Mich- 
igan it is only a puddle. It is about half as large as 
Lake Cayuga, at Ithaca, New York, and standing on any 
of the hills rising precipitously about it one can plainly 
see the whole body of water. 

This so-called sea is only six miles wide at its widest 
part from east to west, and from where the Jordan flows 
in at the north to the place where it empties out at the 
south the distance is a scant thirteen miles. The sea 
lies in the depression of the Jordan Valley, the river 
forming a winding canal two hundred miles long which 
connects it with the Dead Sea at the south. 

Lake Superior is a little more than six hundred feet 
above the level of the ocean. The Sea of Galilee is more 
than six hundred and eighty feet ,below that level and lies 

187 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

in a nest of beautiful mountains which slope up from the 
water in picturesque shapes. 

Over there at the west the shores are bright green and 
are spotted with wild flowers. The grass makes a wav- 
ing sheet of emerald velvet which seems almost to reach 
the fleecy white clouds of the blue sky above. 

Farther to the south are the Galilean mountains, now 
gray in the morning sun, with masses of smoky clouds 
hanging over them. They are full of water; and as I 
look, lo! the rain comes. The sun is still shining and has 
painted a rainbow over that part of the lake covering 
the town of Magdala, which, as you remember, was 
Mary Magdalen's home. 

Looking through the rainbow you can catch sight of 
the Mount of the Beatitudes where our Saviour sat when 
He preached the Sermon on the Mount. On the sloping 
little hill at the left it is said He commanded the weary 
multitude to sit down on the grass and fed the five 
thousand. 

Now look eastward to the lands on the opposite sides 
of the lake and the Jordan. They rise straight up from 
the water. The hills are so steep that it would be almost 
impossible to climb them, and they are ragged and 
rough. That is the land of the Gadarenes, where our 
Lord cast out the devils into the swine which ran vio- 
lently down a steep place into the sea. 

All about us are the most familiar scenes of the Scrip- 
tures. Every bit of these shores has been hallowed; and 
as we look the figures of the Old and New Testaments 
spring into life. It is impossible to read the Bible in 
the Holy Land and not feel that its people were real 
men and women. The apostles had the same feelings as 

1 88 



In a galvanized iron shack, the home of newly arrived colonists, the 
bread of Bible times is made by a Jewess from modern Europe. Pales- 
tine, as a national home, has had a special appeal to the persecuted Jews 
of Poland and southeastern Europe 




Near the waters of Lake Meron, where Joshua smote the Philistines, 
we see to-day the new farmer of Palestine and his transportation. At 
last even the roads of that backward land are being improved so that 
motor cars may go over them 



ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 



ours; they lived in a world much the same; they 
breathed the same air; they loved and sorrowed as we do 
to-day. 

I doubt not our Lord appreciated the beauties of 
Galilee. Its scenery is as picturesque as that of any lake 
in the Alps, and its loveliness changes every hour of the 
day. I saw the sun set last night. The clouds hung 
heavy over the hills to the east of the Jordan and the sun 
gilded the top of the Mount of the Beatitudes as it went 
down in the west. A little before that these waters were 
a glorious yellow which faded away into a rich copper 
bronze. At the same time the heavens were burnished 
copper, cloud piled upon cloud, and the whole was mir- 
rored in the glassy surface beneath. The Sea of Galilee 
has always been noted for its wonderful beauty. It was 
a pleasure resort at the time of Herod Antipas, and the 
palaces of Tiberias and Capernaum were famous all over 
the East. 

Later on I had still another view of the lake. It was 
moonlight on the Sea of Galilee. The great round 
queen of the heavens, her golden face at its full, shone out 
of a mass of dark blue with black clouds behind it. The 
rays of the moon striking the sea obliquely painted a 
wide path of silver running from the hills of Gadara across 
the waters to Tiberias. I gazed at the scene from the 
window of my hotel over the minarets of a Mohammedan 
mosque. It reminded me of Lake Como and of some 
Scottish lakes. 

As we ride up the lake to-day I watch closely the 
fishermen handling our craft. We are in a skiff about 
thirty feet long and four feet wide. It has a white leg- 
of-mutton sail which is filled by the wind from the south, 

189 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



and we are speeding over the water. Our boat leaves 
a pathway of diamonds dropped there by the sun. I 
reach over the side of the boat and let my hand trail in 
the water. It is cool. I dip up some in my palm and 
taste it. It is quite brackish. 

Now the fishermen have laid their oars across the sides 
of the boat. They are depending on the wind to carry 
us onward. Some are asleep, among them one at the prow 
who lies with bare legs outspread, his bronzed face in the 
full glare of the sun. He is snoring. At the right is a 
man mending a net, while on the other side of the boat 
two are chatting. The scene might have been one on 
this same lake nineteen centuries ago, when Christ 
called men like these from their boats to be "fishers of 
men." 

By and by the subject of fishing comes up. Thinking 
of the great draught which Simon Peter and the other 
apostles drew up when they cast their nets at the com- 
mand of our Lord at the time He appeared to them here 
after His crucifixion, I ask if there are still many fish in 
the lake. They tell me that the sea is alive with good 
fish and that quantities are carried to Nazareth and 
other Galilean towns every week. Some are sent to 
Damascus by railroad and some are salted and shipped 
off to Jerusalem. About a year ago a party took five 
tons of fish in one day. The catch was so great that fish 
sold in Tiberias for one cent apiece, and six pounds or 
more could be bought for a penny. All along the lake 
there are fishing villages where the fishermen are still 
to be seen dragging their nets or mending them as they 
float near the shore. I am told that there are three ways 
of fishing. One is by hook and the others are by nets. 

190 



ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 

One kind of net is cast. It is used from the shores by the 
fishermen wading breast deep into the water. The net 
is a great ring or disk of thread weighted with lead. As 
it sinks, it takes the shape of a dome, falling upon the 
fish it incloses. The fisherman dives down and draws 
the leads together and carries net and catch to the 
banks. Much fishing of this kind is done near Magdala. 
Another net is a dragnet, with floats at the top and leads 
at the bottom. This is usually worked from a boat 
dragging the net so that it forms a loop and scoops in 
the fish. Among the fish caught are excellent bass, some 
of which we have had at the hotel. An especially curious 
fish is that known as the chromts simonis, the male of 
which carries the eggs and the young about in its mouth. 

The storms come up quickly on Galilee. I have seen 
several since I arrived in Tiberias and have experienced 
one or two on the sea. It was during one of these storms, 
when they were crossing the sea, that the apostles came 
to our Lord, who was sleeping, and begged him to save 
them. He arose and rebuked the waters, and lo, it was 
calm. 

At the time of another storm He was not with them, 
having gone up into a mountain apart to pray. The ship 
was in the midst of the sea, tossed by the waves, when 
the disciples saw Him walking on the water. They were 
troubled, and, thinking Him a spirit, cried out for fear. 
Then Jesus said: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not 
afraid." 

And you remember how when Peter tried to go to 
Him, and when he saw the wind boisterous, his heart 
failed him and he began to sink, Jesus stretched forth 
His hand and caught him, saying: "O thou of little 

191 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" And when they were 
come into the ship the wind ceased. 

But our wind also has dropped. The boatmen are 
lowering the sails and we are gliding to the shores of 
Capernaum. They are now covered with rich meadows, 
with here and there ploughed fields and crops of fast-grow- 
ing grain. From the boat we can see no signs that a city 
once stood on the spot. The only evidence of life is a 
low, gray, one-story monastery belonging to the Francis- 
cans, who are excavating the ruins and digging temples 
and synagogues out of the soil. They own several hun- 
dred acres running along the beach and extending for 
perhaps a mile up the hills. Some of their lands are under 
cultivation, and there are orchards of lemons, oranges, 
and almonds to the east of their buildings. 

Landing at the wharf we enter a door in the walls 
which surround the excavations. I introduce myself to 
Father Wenderlin, an austere-looking priest who speaks 
German. He takes me around and shows me the results 
of the work. He says they are digging up what is be- 
lieved to be the actual synagogue where Jesus Christ 
taught when He came here from Nazareth. As you 
must remember, Capernaum was His home. It was 
from here that He found most of His disciples and here 
He cured Simon's wife's mother who lay sick of a fever. 
Here, disgusted with the wickedness of the city, He said: 

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto Heaven shall be 
brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done 
in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. 

The prophecy then uttered has long since come to 
pass. The city of Capernaum is not. 

192 



The prayer niches of the Grand Mosque of Damascus are marvels 
in mosaics. Marble and wood are inlaid with gold, silver, precious stones, 
and glass. They were presented to the mosque by pious and wealthy 
Mohammedans as thankofTerings for Divine favour 




In this Mohammedan cemetery in Damascus lies Fatima, daughter 
of the Prophet, and also two of the Prophet's wives. On Thursdays the 
women of the city come to mourn at the graves 



ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 

The ruins of the synagogue show the splendour of the 
ancient city. I walked around its boundaries. It was 
fifty-four feet long and seventy-two feet wide. Its 
front, which faced the sea, had a great many marble 
columns, and it was built in two stories, the upper of 
which was for the women. The pillars are three feet 
thick, smoothly finished and exquisitely carved. The 
marble work is that common in Rome shortly before the 
time of Christ, and much of it is uninjured. 

So far only a small portion of the site of Capernaum 
has been explored. There are a thousand acres or so 
left that in all probability contain ruins which, when 
exposed, may cast new light upon the days and time of 
the Saviour. The Franciscan monks will not permit 
relics to be taken away, and they forbid the use of cam- 
eras. Father Wendelin carries a long black snake whip 
with him, and I am told that he uses it if he is not obeyed. 
The other day a woman tourist brought in a camera 
under her coat and, notwithstanding his objections, took 
a snapshot, whereupon he is said to have laid hold of 
her and thrown her out of the place. 

I am stopping at Tiberias in a little German hotel 
where I have a comfortable room looking out on the 
water. Tiberias is the largest settlement on the sea. 
It lies on the western shore at the southern end, within 
a mile or so of the Horns of Hattin where it is said Christ 
delivered the Sermon on the Mount. It is only a short 
sail from where the Jordan flows out to the Dead Sea, 
and from Semakh, where the railroad now goes north 
on its way from Haifa to Damascus. 

The city was the capital of Galilee, and it was at the 
height of its prosperity when Christ was living at Caper- 

193 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

naum. It was founded by Herod Antipas, the son of 
Herod, the baby killer, and was named after the Roman 
Emperor Tiberias. It was constructed while Christ was 
living in Nazereth, and was a new and thriving city dur- 
ing His residence at Capernaum. It is doubtful that He 
even visited it, for the Bible does not mention His 
doing so. 

The city had a palace and a race course in those days, 
and after the destruction of Jerusalem it became the 
chief seat of the Jewish nation. It is still one of the 
three holy cities of the Jews and it has many Israelites 
among its citizens. They go about in long coats and 
caps bound with fur, and are noted for their piety and for 
their knowledge of the Talmud. Many of them are 
Spanish Jews who have come here to live on account of 
the holiness of the city. 

The Tiberias of to-day is not attractive. It is a mass 
of gray stone and brick buildings, with flat roofs painted 
white. The streets are narrow and filthy and smell to 
heaven. The Arabs have a saying that the king of the 
fleas lives here. The human population is something 
like eight thousand, of whom about two thirds are Jews 
and the remainder Mohammedans and Christians. The 
Jews have ten synagogues and there is also a Moham- 
medan mosque. The northern limits of the place are 
marked by the ruins of the Roman town, and the re- 
mains of its walls and a gate are still standing. 

The hot springs on the shores of the lake a half mile 
from the city, which were famous in the days of the 
Romans, are still used. They are in many respects 
similar to those of Carlsbad, the waters containing sul- 
phur, chloride of magnesia, and iron. They are good for 

194 



ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 

skin diseases, and if they were under American manage- 
ment might be made to pay well. One of the most in- 
teresting and valuable institutions in this city is the 
hospital belonging to the Scottish missionaries. It has 
thousands of patients a year and is doing great good. 

I came here from Nazareth riding over the mountains 
of Galilee. The road is fairly good, although it is up and 
down hill all the way. About six miles from Nazareth I 
stopped at the village of Cana where our Lord was a 
guest at the wedding feast and turned the water into 
wine. I even saw the stone jars or tubs which the people 
who own one of the churches there say were the jars 
used for that miracle. They are kept inside the church, 
and it took several fees to get to them. They are great 
limestone receptacles, looking much like mortars, and it 
is likely that wheat was ground in them by means of a 
pestle. 

I also visited the spring at Cana. As there is only 
one, it must have been from there that the water which 
was turned into wine was obtained. Four camels, six 
sheep, and two cows were drinking at it as I stopped, and 
a half-dozen girls with water-bags were waiting for their 
family supply. It is probable that Cana was much 
larger and more prosperous in the days of our Saviour 
than now. 



195 



CHAPTER XXIV 



THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 

THERE are fifteen million Jews in the world to- 
day, scattered over the face of the earth. Their 
ancestors once lived and ruled in Palestine, a 
country now no bigger than our own state of 
Vermont. For centuries, while peoples of alien faiths 
possessed their ancient land, each Jew kept warm in his 
bosom a belief that the Promised Land would one day be 
restored to him and the Holy City rebuilt to the glory of 
Jehovah. 

During the last century Jews the world over began to 
discuss practical means for making the age-long dream 
of their people come true. This discussion grew into an 
organized movement which has rolled up in size like a 
snowball. Zionism, as it is called, is giving the states- 
men of Christendom, as well as the Jew and the 
Mohammedan, a mighty problem to wrestle with. It in- 
volves the biggest colonization scheme since the settle- 
ment of America, as well as religious and political 
controversies likely to keep the world stirred up for a 
good many years to come. 

This little country has been the battleground of the 
nations since long before the time of Moses. Egyptian 
and Hittite, Assyrian, Persian and Greek, Roman and 
Arab, the Crusader and the Turk have succeeded one 
another in their conquests. In the World War another 

196 




It was down this wall, they say in Damascus, that the Apostle Paul 
was lowered in a basket at night when he escaped from his Jewish enemies 
in that city 



The Street called Straight, the most famous in Damascus, like most 
of the old streets of the Orient, is made narrow to secure shade from the 
hot sun. Besides, it is roofed over, so that it is like a dimly lighted tunnel 



THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 

name was added to the long list, that of the Briton, who 
drove out the Turk. Under a mandate John Bull took 
over the rule of Palestine, and the holy places of three 
great religions, Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Juda- 
ism, came under his trusteeship. 

The British Government proclaimed its intention to 
"favour the establishment in Palestine of a national 
home for the Jewish people" and to "use their best en- 
deavour to facilitate the achievement of this object." 
At the same time they promised that nothing should be 
done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the 
Christians and the Moslems in the Holy Land, nor to hurt 
the position of Jews in other countries. In this way the 
British became the chief sponsors of Zionism, while other 
great nations, including our own United States, expressed 
themselves more or less formally in sympathy with 
the aims of the movement. The British appointed a 
Jew, Sir Herbert Samuel, first High Commissioner of 
Palestine, and promised to cooperate with the inter- 
national Zionist organization in working out Palestine 
affairs. 

I have told you of the Jewish colonies I have seen in 
the Holy Land. When the first colony was founded there 
were not enough Jews in all Palestine to hold a prayer 
meeting. Under Zionism their number rapidly increased, 
and within three years after British control there were more 
than seventy-five thousand Jews in the Holy Land, with 
about sixteen thousand living in the colonies. But the 
number of Jews forms only about one tenth of the total 
population, four fifths of whom are Moslems, with about 
the same number of native Christians as Jews. After 
the war Jews poured in for a time at the rate of fifteen 

197 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



hundred a month, and thousands more are eager to come 
as soon as permitted. 

The founder of the Zionist movement was Dr. Theodore 
Herzl, who called together the first world congress of 
Jews. He travelled over Europe for many years, getting 
the leading men of his time interested in Zionism. The 
Pope received him, and so did the Kaiser, while Joseph 
Chamberlain in England gave his support to the move- 
ment. He had two interviews with the Sultan of Turkey, 
Abdul Hamid, on whom he made such an impression that 
the Sultan once said: 

"That is a good man. As he looks, so I imagine the 
Christ must have looked." Some of the Jews called 
Herzl the "Twentieth Century Messiah." 

I once had a talk with Israel Zangwill, one of the most 
famous Zionists, about this Jewish movement. He said: 

"We Jews have always hoped that Palestine would 
again belong to us. This hope has lasted for more than 
two thousand years, and from time to time various proj- 
ects based upon it have been formed to repossess the land. 
Nearly all of these have been visionary and many of 
them have been founded upon the second coming of a 
Messiah who should suddenly rise and lead us, in some 
miraculous way, back to our Mother Country. Many 
Jews confidently believe that will occur. At present the 
Jews are scattered all over the earth. There are more 
than fifteen million of them. About ten million are in 
Russia and the other countries of eastern Europe. As 
it is now, the Jews are congested in the large cities. 
London has many times the number in the Holy Land, 
and there are at least twice as many Jews in New York 
as the whole population of Palestine. Chicago has a 

198 



THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 



quarter of a million, and Philadelphia more than two 
hundred thousand. New York City has the largest 
Ghetto of the world, and adds to it by thousands of im- 
migrants a year. 

"We were once an agricultural and pastoral people," 
continued Mr. Zangwill, "and we could make Palestine 
again a land of milk and honey. We should like to have 
the country as a Jewish colony, made up of our own peo- 
ple, where we could govern ourselves in our own way. 
We should not object to being colonially dependent upon 
some great power, but we want home rule and a national 
home of our own." 

There are really three kinds of Zionists, and the Jews 
themselves are divided. Some would be satisfied to make 
Jerusalem merely the centre of their religion and of 
Hebrew culture. A larger number want Palestine to be 
a place of refuge, where Jews from all over the world 
may live in freedom from political, religious, or economic 
oppression. But a still larger number will not be satis- 
fied until there is set up in Palestine a Jewish state, with 
Jew 7 s in control of the land, the government, and the 
holy places. These Jews say they wish to do full justice 
to the other natives of Palestine, with whom they be- 
lieve they can live in peace, and expect the British to re- 
tain control until the Jews form a majority of the popu- 
lation. To put through this programme powerful Jewish 
organizations have set out to raise a fund of one hundred 
and twenty-five million dollars in five years. 

The non-Jewish people of Palestine have objected to 
the Zionist scheme, and demanded of the British that all 
Jewish immigration be stopped for ten years. Chris- 
tians and Moslems in Palestine have wasted no love on 

199 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

one another, but the prospect of a great wave of Jewish 
settlers united them to the extent that a Moslem-Chris- 
tian league was formed, whose members agreed to sell 
no land to Jews. Nevertheless, the Jews have continued 
to increase their land holdings, but the British have lim- 
ited the number of Jewish immigrants who can come into 
Palestine. At times the feeling between Jew and non-Jew 
has been so acute as to result in riots in which many 
people were killed. 

The Moslems say that the Jews have no right to Pales- 
tine since their people have not lived there for nearly two 
thousand years. The Zionist programme, they state, is 
based on the theory that might makes right, and they 
accuse the British of ignoring the wishes of the majority 
in Palestine and consulting only the Jews, whom the 
Moslems outnumber almost ten to one. 

They complain that leaders of Jewish organizations in 
other countries have more influence in Palestine affairs 
than the native Palestinians themselves, and say that 
some of them are sending communists to the Holy Land 
to stir up class warfare. 

The Zionists feel that what the Jews have already done 
in Palestine goes far to justify their aim to make it a 
Jewish homeland. "Our people," they say, "have es- 
tablished over seventy colonies on land, much of which 
was reclaimed from swamp and sand. They have cre- 
ated gardens and orchards where once was waste. They 
have started modern schools, and the first act of the 
Zionists under British control was to lay the cornerstone 
of a national Jewish university in Jerusalem. They have 
put in sanitary improvements in their villages, opened 
hospitals and given medical service to Jew and Gentile 

200 



THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 

alike. They have started new industries, and are pre- 
paring to harness the water power of the Jordan so as to 
make it possible to irrigate the land and furnish elec- 
tricity for the whole country." These things, the Zion- 
ists say, are but the beginning of further benefits to come 
as the Jews flock back to the Promised Land and work 
out their big programme. 

There is plenty of room for Jews and Moslems, accord- 
ing to Zionists, who estimate that the land could be made 
to support from three million to five million people. But 
one fourth of the land is now in use, and the population 
is only about fifty to the square mile. 

The Jews have begun to revive the Hebrew language in 
Palestine. In Jerusalem, where most of the learned 
gather, it is already spoken by many Jews from different 
countries who find it their common tongue. Outside 
Jerusalem it is not spoken so much, but it is being taught 
in the Jewish schools. Before the war, German organ- 
izations backing certain colonies and schools tried to 
compel the use of German in the Polytechnic Institute built 
at the foot of Mount Carmel, but succeeded only in starting 
a great quarrel in which they were utterly defeated. 

With the revival of the ancient language has come an 
effort to revive Hebrew art. In the Bezalel Art and Craft 
School of Jerusalem characters of the old Hebrew alpha- 
bet have been made the basis for new designs in weaving 
rugs and decorating vases. Young Jewish painters have 
been attracted to Palestine to take part in this revival, 
and musicians have begun to collect the old Hebrew 
melodies. The ancient church council of the Sanhedrin, 
told of in the Bible, has been set up again in Jerusalem, 
with women admitted to its membership. 

201 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine, for- 
merly called the American Medical Unit, now has three 
hospitals and a dispensary maintained at a cost said to 
be more than five hundred thousand dollars a year. 
Hadassah grew out of an American organization of Jewish 
women. Ten years ago it was a small society of one hun- 
dred and ninety-three members. To-day it is a national 
organization with a membership of fifteen thousand. It 
is especially active in health work among children, and 
in the care of mothers and infants, and it teaches 
Palestine girls to be nurses. There were twenty-two 
girls in the first class graduated from the nurses' train- 
ing school. 

Another thing the Zionists have done to help their 
brethren in Palestine is to organize a bank, with a capital 
of $800,000. They plan to make long-time loans to 
farmers who have had to depend in the past on loans 
from the Jewish organizations backing the colonies, or 
on private lenders in Palestine. The latter have charged 
interest at the rate of 10 per cent, and more. 

But the Moslems say that all these activities on the part 
of the Jew prove that political Zionism aims at nothing 
less than Jewish control of the Holy Land and everything 
and everybody in it. There is a story of an American 
who found a Jewish friend weeping at the "Wailing 
Place." 

"What is the matter with you?" he asked. 
"Me? I'm wailing!" 

"What are you wailing for? Aren't there plenty of 
Jews in Jerusalem? And haven't you got a Jew for a 
governor?" 

"Yes, I know, but I want the Mosque of Omar." 

202 



THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT 

There are also Jews who favour a more moderate 
Zionism, and fear that setting up a Jewish state will 
make trouble both in Palestine and in the countries where 
Jews are now citizens with a part in business and public 
afTairs. 



203 



CHAPTER XXV 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 

STAND with me on the slope of the Lebanon Moun- 
tains and take a look over Damascus. We have 
| climbed the road cut out for Kaiser Wilhelm, the 
Emperor of Germany, when he visited this region, 
and are now on a bare lofty hill which the Mohammedans 
consider one of the holy spots of the world. It is where 
the prophet Mohammed stood and gazed at that mag- 
nificent town, the Damascus of his day. After staying 
here for hours, he turned away with a sigh, saying: 

"I dare not go in. Man can enter paradise but once, 
and if I go into Damascus, this paradise on earth, I shall 
not be able to enter the paradise of the hereafter/' 

According to the Mohammedans, Abraham first re- 
ceived the divine revelation of the unity of God in Damas- 
cus; and Josephus says that the town was founded by Uz, 
the great-grandson of Noah. The Bible tells us that 
Abraham had a steward who came from Damascus, and 
we know that King David besieged and conquered the 
place. There is no doubt that it is one of the oldest 
towns, if not the very oldest, upon earth. It was in exist- 
ence before the days of Rameses and Thebes, before 
Alexandria sprang into greatness on the Mediterranean 
shores, and while Nebuchadnezzar was chewing grass in 
the gardens of Babylon. It was old long before Athens 
had begun to be, was already gray-haired when Rome was 

204 



It is in the horse market that men foregather to trade and gossip or to 
enjoy a cooling drink from such a bottle as is shown here 




"O Allah, send customers," cry the bread sellers in Damascus, as they 
squat in the street with their stock and scales 



The beautiful rugs of the Orient are all hand-made, from 
carding and spinning the wool to the long months of weaving 
in the lovely patterns. But there is more time in the East 
than we hustling Westerners ever find 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 



a baby, and antedates any of the cities of the present. It 
is now one of the most thriving centres of the Moham- 
medan world. 

Damascus lies on the eastern side of the Lebanon Moun- 
tains about one hundred and fifty miles northeast of 
Jerusalem, and, as the crow flies, about fifty-three miles 
from the Mediterranean Sea. It is an oasis city sur- 
rounded by deserts. It is fed by two cold, clear rivers 
flowing out of great springs in the mountains of Lebanon 
and making green this sandy plain in which they are 
lost. These rivers are the Abana and Pharpar of the 
Bible. You remember how Naaman, the leper, referred 
to them when Elisha told him to go and wash in the 
Jordan seven times and his flesh would be clean. Where- 
upon Naaman replied: 

"Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better 
than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them 
and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. 

You remember also how one of his servants told Naaman 
that Elisha was asking a little thing of him and how he 
then went down and bathed in the murky Jordan, "and 
his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little child, 
and he was clean." 

As we stand on the hill of Mohammed at the north- 
west end of the city and look at Damascus we do not 
wonder at Naaman's contempt of the Jordan. We have 
seen that the latter is a winding, rocky, semi-alkaline 
stream which flows through a desert, the great gorge or 
depression of Ghor. It has a scanty vegetation along 
its banks and flows through a valley of death to the 
great salt sea known as "The Dead." The Abana, or 
Barada, as it is now called, and the Pharpar, now called 

205 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



Barber, are pure mountain streams. The former is one 
of the most beautiful of the whole world. I have trav- 
elled along it almost to its source. It is a rushing river of 
pure, clear green water which spreads life over all that it 
touches. Together with the Barber it makes green the 
great plain which lies below us and builds up the orchards 
of almonds, apricots, apples, and the rich crops which 
cover it, as well as the white city of Damascus rising in 
its centre. 

Now turn your eyes to the city itself. There it lies 
under these magnificent mountains with its luxuriant 
gardens and orchards surrounded by deserts. Within and 
without silver poplars cast their green shadows over the 
houses. The town has been compared to a pearl. It is 
shaped very like one. My guide, Shammas, who stands 
beside me, tells me that it looks like a camel, and a 
second glance shows me the head and neck of the beast 
reaching out to a point where lies a railway station of 
the road going to Mecca. The road itself is the long neck 
of the camel and farther back is the body, the minarets 
forming the hump. "Now look again," says Shammas, 
"and see if it is not like a fan!" "Very much so," I reply, 
"and it is also like a great spoon with a long slender 
handle and large oval bowl." 

To come down to details, Damascus is an expanse of 
pearly white tinged with the pink of its roofs. The 
buildings rise high over the green, and out of them, like 
fingers pointing to heaven, are the minarets of two hun- 
dred mosques, with the mighty dome of the Great Mosque 
in the centre. At the right of the latter are the arched 
roofs of bazaars which have been famous for ages, while 
away off from the rest is a big yellow building with a 

206 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 

roof of red tiles. That is the centre of Moslem fanati- 
cism, where for centuries thousands of Mohammedan 
soldiers have been quartered. At times, a few years 
ago, even they have let loose their religious fury and 
slaughtered Christians living in the city. 

Damascus is a Mohammedan city. It has about three 
hundred thousand people, four fifths of whom follow the 
Prophet. It has also about thirty thousand Greeks, eight 
thousand Jews, and lesser numbers of Syrians, Armen- 
ians, Persians, and Druses. These people are very de- 
vout. One sees them reading their Korans in their 
shops, and at the mosques I have observed a score or more 
of the Faithful washing themselves before they go into 
their prayers. The mosques are full of turbaned men, 
old and young, who pray singly and in groups, and in 
many one finds companies of worshippers under a leader. 
There are also many classes listening to the explanations 
of the Koran by the priests, and there are men reading 
by themselves. 

But come down with me from the hill and take a stroll 
through the city. This is Sunday, and we shall first 
visit the mosques. There are seventy large ones, where 
sermons are preached every Friday, and one hundred and 
seventy-seven which might be called chapels, connected 
with which are Mohammedan schools. Many of these 
mosques have libraries, and in all of them the chief study 
is theology, including the Koran and the traditions of the 
prophets. After that comes law, then philosophy, logic, 
and grammar. Modern sciences are unknown, and all 
other branches of learning are entirely neglected. 

One of the chief centres of Moslem religious life is the 
Great Mosque. This is one of the finest of Mohammedan 

207 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



churches. It stands in the centre of the city and covers 
about seven acres, or almost twice as much space as the 
Capitol at Washington. In the great court paved with 
marble is a fountain, said to mark the half-way station 
on the route from Constantinople to Mecca. It is there 
that the worshippers bathe parts of their bodies before 
going to their prayers. On the other side of this 
enormous court is the mosque proper, the oblong floor 
of which covers an acre. Many great columns uphold 
its roof, and other columns stand between it and the 
court. 

Entering this room, we find two thousand men and per- 
haps a hundred women at worship. Nevertheless, the 
building seems empty. The worshippers are scattered 
over the floor. The women are alone, and the men dare 
not look at them. They are closely veiled and do not 
notice us as we go by. Most of the men are on their 
knees or sitting upon the floor. Before coming into the 
church all have removed their shoes, which now lie be- 
side or in front of them. The floor is covered with costly 
rugs, presents from devout Mohammedans. Think of 
roofing a large field, upholding the roof by mighty col- 
umns, and then carpeting that field with oriental rugs 
any one of which would be fit to hang upon your walls 
as a treasure, and you have a suggestion of the picture 
now before us. 

There are strange things in the mosque. In its centre 
is a marble chapel supposed to stand over the ashes of 
the head of John the Baptist. Men are sitting before 
the chapel with their heads toward Mecca, and they 
rise and fall as they pray to John the Baptist, the fore- 
runner of Christ, and to Mohammed as the prophet of 

208 




The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin and his camel is threatened 
to-day by the invading automobile and motor truck 




At the end of the Booksellers' Bazaar looms the Dome of the Mosque, 
built amid the ruins of a Christian church, which was itself preceded on 
the same site by a Roman temple 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 



God. Thus religion, like politics, makes strange bed- 
fellows. 

Damascus is the heart of the Mohammedan world. 
At its back is Persia, altogether Mohammedan. At its 
south are Palestine and Arabia, more Moslem than 
Christian, while at the north are other realms of Islam. 
All around it the people are Mohammedans, who hate 
the Christians and massacre them whenever they can. 
This was the case in the spring of 1909, when thousands 
were killed and a terrible slaughter of Christians by 
heathens took place in this region. Multitudes were 
massacred, and it was only because the great Christian 
nations of Europe were afraid of their pocketbooks and 
of the loss of that balance of power which might result 
from a war that the Turkish Empire was not wiped out 
as a punishment therefor. The matter was hushed up, 
and but little of the true story was told in the papers. I 
refer to the bloodshed throughout Asia Minor when the 
sultan, Abdul Hamid, was overthrown by the Young 
Turks and his brother, Mohammed V, was put in his place. 

Another strange object in the Great Mosque is the 
holy tent of the pilgrim caravan. This is used during 
the pilgrimage to Mecca, which generally starts at Damas- 
cus. Every Moslem is bound to make this pious journey 
at least once in his life, and the followers of the Prophet 
gather here from all directions for the trip to their holy 
city. 

As they approach Mecca they take off their clothes, 
laying aside everything from the soles of their feet to the 
crowns of their heads. They then put on aprons, and 
carrying only a piece of cloth over the left shoulder, 
walk into the city. They march around the sacred 

209 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



Kaaba and kiss the black stone. They pelt Satan with 
rocks in the Valley of Mina, and end their pilgrimage 
with a great sacrificial feast, at the end of their Lent, 
when the festival of Beiram begins. 

I have not seen these pilgrim caravans, but they are 
said to be extremely interesting. Many of the rich go 
on camel litters something like the mule litters used in 
north China. These are beds slung between poles which 
are fastened to camels, one going before and the other 
behind and trained to keep step. The camels are adorned 
for the occasion with coins, shells, and other ornaments, 
besides hundreds of small bells which jingle as they march. 
In advance of the procession is a large camel litter hung 
with green cloth and embroidered with gold. This con- 
tains the green flag of the Prophet and one of the oldest 
copies of the Koran now in existence. In addition to the 
worshippers themselves there is always an escort of sol- 
diers and Bedouins. There are also many half-naked 
dervishes who sing and howl and cut themselves, shouting 
out texts from the Koran as they go on their way. 

It is a question whether the railway from Damascus 
to Mecca will not cause this great caravan to become a 
thing of the past as far as the travel between Damascus 
and Mecca is concerned. 

During my stay here I have gone out to the cemetery 
to see the tomb of Mohammed's favourite daughter Fa- 
tima. Mohammed had several wives in addition to the 
four which he allows to each of his followers. His first 
wife was Khadija, the widow whose fortune made him 
prominent and whose servant he was. As I remember 
it, she was his first convert. Two of his other wives and 
Fatima are buried here, and every Thursday many veiled 

210 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 



women come to mourn at their graves. Fatima's tomb 
is a little domed mosque about fifteen feet square with a 
praying alcove facing toward Mecca. Her body lies in a 
marble sarcophagus, which stands on a pedestal covered 
with green velvet and with a piece of green cloth at its 
head. As I looked at the tomb I saw several rags tied 
to the bars of the window and was told that they were 
put there as the pledges of sick persons, showing that they 
would give money to the mosque if they should be cured. 

The tomb of Saladin, the great Mohammedan general 
who fought Europe during the Crusades, is also in Damas- 
cus. It is in a small mausoleum attached to the Great 
Mosque. At the head of the marble sarcophagus is a 
glass case in which lies the golden wreath placed on Sa- 
ladin's tomb by the German Kaiser. Because this 
wreath had a cross worked into its design it gave deep 
offence to the Damascenes, who demanded its removal 
from the shrine. But the Kaiser's "great and good 
friend," Sultan Abdul Hamid, ordered it to remain, as it 
was placed there by the Emperor of Germany. 

I have spent some time tracing the footsteps of St. 
Paul, the apostle. You will remember that he was one 
of the Jewish officials, and was "breathing out threaten- 
ings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" 
when he got the high priest to give him letters to the syn- 
agogues of Damascus, that he might bring such Chris- 
tians as he found there to Jerusalem for trial. He was 
on his way here and was not far from the city when the 
light from heaven shone round him and blinded him, and 
the Lord said unto him: 

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks. 

211 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

You remember how the blind Paul, or Saul, as he was 
then called, was led into Damascus to the house of a man 
named Ananias, not the husband of Sapphira, however, 
or any associate of the champion liar of history. You 
recall, how, when he came there, he again received his 
sight and, being converted, was baptized. It was the 
house of this Ananias, according to Shammas and the 
guide books, that I visited the other day. I found the 
Ananias of the present by no means averse to a small 
gift of silver. He took all my spare change and then 
asked for more. I later discovered that the authenticity 
of the house is questioned and there is another Ananias 
house, which is now used as a chapel. I looked for the 
house of Naaman the Syrian, and was shown an old 
building occupied by lepers. 

It was in the Street called Straight that Ananias met 
Paul. This is one of the principal highways of the 
Damascus of to-day. It leads from the chief gate on 
the south to the bazaars and is about the only straight 
street in the city. It goes right through Damascus and is 
so wide that two or three carriages can pass on it. It is 
the centre of traffic, and while there I saw caravans of 
camels, donkeys, and horses bringing in and taking out 
all kinds of goods. One line of camels was loaded with 
poplar trees as long as telegraph poles. The ends of the 
poles dragged in the road as they walked. Behind them 
came donkeys with panniers of green cucumbers and 
horses loaded with baskets of Jaffa oranges, each as big 
as the head of a baby. A mule followed the horses. It 
was loaded with butter from the interior packed in black 
leather bottles of the shape and size of a tin dinner bucket. 

St. Paul had a lively time in Damascus. He preached 

212 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 

in the synagogue and confounded the Jews. After a while 
the Jews took counsel to kill him, and they watched the 
gates day and night for that purpose. It was then that 
his friends took him by night and let him down over the 
wall in a basket. 

This very place is now shown, and I have made a 
photograph of the spot. The wall is a great structure of 
stone with a mud parapet on top. There is a house on 
the top of the wall at the place indicated. This has 
windows with great bars across them, and it is very easy 
to imagine how St. Paul might have been let down from 
such a place when he made his escape. 



213 



CHAPTER XXVI 



SHOPPING IN THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 

Cus go this morning for a walk through the ba- 
zaars of this the oldest of all the world's cities. 
They are more oriental than those of Tunis or 
Cairo and more quaint than those of Constan- 
tinople. 

Take the Street called Straight, up which St. Paul came 
to meet Ananias. It is a vaulted tunnel where the only 
light comes through little windows in the roof, which 
rises to a height of about one hundred feet. Suppose you 
could cover lower Broadway at the top of its third-story 
windows, and in place of the doors and windows of plate- 
glass have the walls made up of cave-like stores opening 
out on the roadway. Let each store have a floor about 
as high above the street level as the seat of a chair, and 
let it be filled with the most gorgeous goods of the 
Orient. Let each have its turbaned or fez-capped merchant 
sitting on the floor at the front, with workmen similarly 
dressed labouring away in the rear. The bazaars of Da- 
mascus are made up of many such vaulted streets so roofed 
that only dim light comes in through the little windows 
high up overhead. The shops are mere holes in the 
walls, but they are packed full of goods. The walls be- 
tween them are little more than partitions of boards, and 
there is hardly a business establishment where the tradi- 
tional bull of the china shop could turn round without 

214 



SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 

losing his hide. The customers bargain standing out in 
the roadway, or sitting on the floors of the stores and 
hanging their heels in the street. 

Each trade has its own section and we walk for blocks 
filled with booths containing only one kind of goods. 
Here is the saddle bazaar. The air is heavy with the rich 
smell of leather. Harness hangs from the walls, and in- 
side are saddles for camels, donkeys, and horses. There 
are gay trappings for Arabian steeds, and leather buckets 
in which one can carry water with him over the desert. 
There are also necklaces of blue beads to put on your 
horses to ward off the evil eye, as well as other charms for 
the journey. 

The harness shops are twelve feet deep and each is a 
little factory where two or three saddlers are at work. 
In some places they are making harness of wool and in 
others trappings of leather beautifully decorated. 

A little farther on we come to a bazaar selling panniers 
for camels and donkeys, while not far away is a street 
where they handle nothing but shoes. The cobblers are 
turning out footgear of wood, wool, and leather. They 
are cutting out sandals somewhat like the rain shoes of 
Japan. The finer ones, which are beautifully inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl, are for the better class women. Such 
shoes are used at home and when madame goes to the 
bathhouse. They are worn without stockings. In an- 
other place the merchants are selling shoes of red leather 
such as are used by the country people and the poorer 
Damascenes. They are of goatskin, camelskin, or cow- 
hide, and have no heels. The leather is not very well 
tanned, the shoes being kept on the lasts until sold. 

The average shoe shop is about fifteen feet wide, ten 

215 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

feet deep, and twelve feet in height. The stock is hung 
to wooden nails driven into the walls both in and outside 
the shop. The men customers stand in the street and 
try on the shoes without the assistance of the merchant. 
The women examine the shoes through the eye slits of 
their veils and guess at the sizes. 

A very odd boot is that worn by the Bedouins. It is 
of goatskin dyed yellow or red and has heels of camelhide 
with an iron strip running round each of them. This 
boot reaches half way to the knee. None of the shoes 
is made by machinery, and most of them are sewed 
rather than pegged. 

How would you like to have your hat blocked, ironed, 
and brushed for a cent? That is what you can do in 
Damascus. The hat bazaar has scores of shops for the 
purpose. The most common cap is the red fez, a round 
felt bowl which fits tight around the head without rim 
or brim. It is about five inches high, and must be 
pressed every few days to keep it in shape. The hatter 
has a zinc-covered table in which are several small holes 
filled with fires of burning charcoal. He has brass 
frames or blocks over which the caps fit, and shells of 
metal which may be clamped upon them to hold the fez 
in form. After this the frame is laid over one of the fires, 
and in a moment the heat gives the cap the latest and 
most fashionable shape. 

Other bazaars are devoted to the selling of silks and 
still others to the finest of cloths. The wealthier Mo- 
hammedans have their long robes made of the best pos- 
sible stufTs, for they delight in rich garments. The 
women shop in these bazaars. They peep out through 
their veils as they examine the goods and will bargain an 

216 



SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 



hour in buying a needle. I am told that they sometimes 
raise their veils to entice the merchants to lower their 
prices, but if so, I have not seen them, and I have been told 
by my guide that if I wish to keep my head on my shoulders 
I had best turn my eyes in another direction. 

There is one Damascus bazaar where I walk carefully, 
and as far as possible keep in midstreet. It is called the 
Louse Market, and you may know why when I tell you 
that it is devoted to second-hand clothes. The bazaar is 
just back of the citadel and not far from the Straight 
Street. From morning until evening it is filled with custom- 
ers and dealers; auctioneers walk back and forth through 
it, each carrying a garment which he holds up, asking for 
bids. He praises his goods to the skies and tells the crowd 
that he is willing to sell them for a song. 

Yesterday I spent a short time in the booksellers' ba- 
zaar, but my guide Shammas dragged me away, fearing 
that we might be insulted and mobbed. The dealers are 
such strict Mohammedans that they do not wish even to 
sell to the Christians. The shops are near the gate of the 
Great Mosque and among their wares are many copies 
of the Koran. Picking one up, I asked the merchant 
the price. 

He scowled and angrily exclaimed: "Put it down! Put 
it down ! We do not sell our holy books to the Christians/' 

Thereupon, as I saw he was growing angry, I dropped 
it, saying: "We Christians are glad to give or sell our 
Bibles to any one, and as for your Korans, I can buy them 
by the ton in New York or London." 

The Moslems here are noted for their hatred of Chris- 
tians, and one of the bloodiest massacres of modern times 
occurred in Damascus about sixty years ago. The 

217 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



people are little changed to-day, and they are about 
as ignorant as they were then. The chief books 
sold are religious. There are also some story books and 
copies of the "Arabian Nights," either in parts or as a 
whole. 

During our trip through the bazaars we find the tastes 
of the Mohammedan stomach everywhere in evidence. 
These people like good food, and it seems to me they eat 
from morning till night. Pedlars carrying candy, lem- 
onade, and cakes march through the streets crying their 
wares while bread men sit on the sidewalks with their 
stocks. The most common bread is a flat, round cake as 
thick as the buckwheats we have for breakfast, and a 
foot or more in diameter. These cakes are white or 
brown. They are so pliable that they can be doubled 
up without breaking. They are often used to pick the 
meats out of a stew. The Orientals do not use forks, 
claiming that their own hands are much cleaner. They 
have a saying that "everyone knows whether he has 
washed his own hands, but no one knows who washed 
the forks." Another kind of bread is like a gigantic 
shoe sole without the heel, and another is a round biscuit 
about an inch thick. 

But here comes a man selling candy. Take a bite of 
it and your mouth will flow water like the rivers which 
feed this city and make fertile its plains. Damascus is 
noted for its sweetmeats, and its candies are shipped far 
and wide over the world. The sweets are sold in the 
bazaars, some of the merchants having large shops. 
There is one dear old turbaned sheik who has a cell in 
the candy bazaar where you can buy nuts and fruits fit 
for the queen of the fairies. His sugared almonds are 

218 



SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 



the joy of the tourist, and his Turkish delight, a soft, 
sweet, transparent paste, with pistachios and other small 
nuts scattered through it, is a dish for the gods. 

Stop a moment and listen to the cries of the pedlars. 
Shammas will interpret them for us. Here is a man 
selling bread hot from the oven. He yells: "Ya retfak" , 
or, "God, send me a customer," and follows by showing 
a cake and saying, "All this for two cents." Another 
coming behind cries out in Arabic: "Buy my bread and 
the good God will nourish you," and a third says: "My 
cakes are food for the swallows and the delight of tender 
and delicate girls." 

Here comes a lemonade man. He has a big glass jar 
slung to his back with a neck so shaped that he can tilt 
its contents into a cup. He has two brazen bowls which 
he holds in his hands and rattles as he shouts: "Drink 
and refresh thy heart." Another pedlar has ice-cream 
the coolness of which he cries up in the words: "Balak 
sunnak," or "Take care of your teeth," meaning it is 
so cold it will make your teeth ache. Fruit is sold the 
same way, as well as cooked meats of various kinds. 
There is one salad which the men call out is so tender 
that if an old woman eats it she will find herself young 
in the morning. 

A good deal of food is bought by the charitable and 
given to beggars. Some even buy bread for the dogs, 
hoping thereby to acquire merit and thus pave their 
road to the Mohammedan heaven. 

Making our way through the crowds we reach a region 
of cook shops, restaurants, and cafes not far from the 
butcher shops. The latter sell most kinds of meat, in- 
cluding camel, beef, mutton, and lamb. The mutton is 

219 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

fine. The sheep are of the fat-tail variety, and when 
skinned and dressed for the market their tails are left on. 
These hang down over their backs in great lumps of fat, 
looking like a loaf of fresh dough ready for baking. 
Sometimes they have the form of a heart four or five inches 
thick and eight inches wide. Such a tail will weigh fifteen 
pounds. Upon a live sheep it hangs down at the rear like 
a woolly apron, and when raised looks like a miniature sail, 
showing an expanse of bare white skin beneath. 

Another interesting part of business Damascus is com- 
posed of long streets of cave-like vaults floored with cement 
and divided up into compartments piled high with grain, 
beans, or flour. This is the grain bazaar. One of the 
compartments may hold a hundred bushels of wheat and 
another a like quantity of oats, barley, or lentils. There 
are bins filled with Indian corn and bins of caraway seeds. 
The grain lies on the floor and is scooped up and measured 
to order. Camels come in bringing great bags of wheat 
and go out carrying other grains to various parts of the 
city. The country about Damascus which can be irri- 
gated is exceedingly rich and produces large crops. A 
great deal of grain is brought from the plains beyond the 
Jordan and on the east of the Sea of Galilee, known as the 
hauran, and this grain is shipped from Damascus to other 
parts of Syria and across the Mediterranean to Europe. 

Indeed, the trade of Damascus is extensive. The city 
makes goods of various kinds which are shipped all over 
the world. It is noted for its beautiful brass and silver 
ware, its inlaid woodwork, and its oriental rugs. It has 
large caravan trade with Persia and other parts of Turkey, 
and long lines of camels are always bringing in and carry- 
ing out goods. There are some great buildings called 

220 



SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT 



khans devoted to wholesaling and warehousing. I vis- 
ited one of these. It was shaped much like a mosque, 
being lighted by nine great domes the tops of which were 
at least one hundred feet above the dirt floor. The 
domes were upheld by stone pillars. The floor, which 
covered almost an acre, was packed with merchandise. 

In one part of it were bags of wheat piled high toward 
the roof; in another hundreds of boxes of dates. In 
other parts were barrels and crates of fruit and bales of 
oriental rugs laid one upon the other. Some of the bales 
were enormous, one equalling a load for a two-horse 
wagon. I was told that they came from Bagdad. There 
were a number of these khans in Damascus at the time of 
Christ, and there are several now in use. The space in 
them is rented out to merchants, the owners doing a gen- 
eral warehousing business. 

But come, let us go to the silver bazaar. 

This, like the warehouse establishment, is under one 
roof. It is composed of scores of silversmith shops or 
booths scattered over a large room of more than an acre. 
Each merchant has his own little quarter. He sits be- 
hind a desk or counter, and has a rude, old-fashioned 
safe at the rear. At the right and left, or still farther 
back, are his mechanics, who are working in silver and 
gold, making all sorts of jewellery. Each has a little anvil 
before him and a miniature furnace with a blow pipe, by 
which he melts and shapes the metal to the desired form. 
The pounding can be heard everywhere. We ask some of 
the merchants to show us their wares. They bring out 
heavy chains of silver, and gold rings set with diamonds and 
pearls and some magnificent pigeon-blood rubies. There 
are millions of dollars' worth of jewellery under this roof. 

221 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

The customers are both men and women, the former 
in gowns and turbans and the latter in great black sheets 
with veils over their faces. We stop and watch the buy- 
ing and selling. There is a woman looking at a bracelet 
of gold. The jeweller weighs it on rude little scales and 
then adds the cost of the labour. The woman is not 
satisfied with the price. She calls him a thief, and de- 
mands that he do not rob her children of bread. It may 
be an hour before the bargain is made. 

I am frequently asked what one can buy in these or- 
iental cities which is worth while taking home. Damas- 
cus is a good shopping place for the tourist. Since it is 
somewhat off the main line of travel, one can pick up 
oriental things comparatively cheap. I have bought 
several rugs which have come here by caravan from 
Bokhara, two of which are at least one hundred years old. 
I will not give the prices except to say that they are much 
below those at which they could be bought in New York, 
and the merchant has agreed to pay the duties upon them 
and to deliver them to my house in Washington. 

Among the many other things sold are silk head shawls 
such as are used by the Bedouins, and table covers of red 
or black woollen cloth embroidered with silk. 

A great many Americans take home brassware from 
Damascus, and not a few purchase swords inlaid with 
silver and with the Damascus blades for which the city 
has been noted for ages. Some of these swords are imi- 
tations imported from Germany, while other " oriental" 
wares come from Manchester, being made especially for 
this trade. Indeed, one must keep his eye open if he 
would buy genuine curios in any part of the world. 



222 



CHAPTER XXVII 



THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 

HO! YE bold, bright-eyed, fair-skinned girls of 
America ! Forget the infinity of changing styles 
with which you are free to please us every year 
and take a look at your sisters of Damascus in 
far-away Syria. 

How would you like to exchange your life for theirs? 
How would you like to spend your days without showing 
your face to the light of the sun? How would you 
like to go about in a great bag of black silk tied in at 
the waist so that it covers your form from the head 
to the feet except for a short, thick veil of black through 
the meshes of which you can just feel your way along 
the street? 

How would you like to be penned up in the back of 
your house, or to have your front windows so latticed 
that you could see out only through holes as big around 
as a lead pencil? Aye, more, how would you like never 
to talk to any man but one of your own family, and worse, 
never even to be seen by any other man or boy? 

This is the condition of the girls of this fanatical city 
of Damascus. It is the fate of millions of other women 
of the Mohammedan world. 

Within the past thirty years I have visited every Moslem 
country on earth, and have worn out my eyes trying to 

223 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



see through the veils which hide the fair sex. In Morocco 
their faces are covered with cotton, and they peep out 
through the crack made by pulling the cloth slightly 
apart in front of the face. In Kairouan the girls cover 
their faces with black crepe so thick that you cannot 
tell whether they are negroes or whites; and in Tunis 
they are so shrouded in balloon-like robes as hardly to be 
able to walk. In Zanzibar the girls wear bags which 
cover them to the feet, and their only view of the world 
is through peepholes as big as a fifty-cent piece hedged 
across with lace netting so that no man shall see in. In 
Egypt the headdress comes down to the eyebrows, and a 
veil extends from there to the knees, with the exception 
of a crack for the eyes, the crack being kept open by a 
gold or brass spool resting on the bridge of the nose. In 
Constantinople the fashionable Turks are doing away with 
the veil or using thin white gauze through which the face 
can be plainly seen. It is thus that the ladies of the 
harem of the Sultan are dressed, and thus the wives of all 
the rich men. 

Here in Damascus the women stick to veils of flowered 
muslin or black crepe and wrap themselves in great bil- 
lowy cloaks of black silk or calico. These bulge out 
above and below where they are tied at the waist, making 
each maiden look like two huge lumps of sausages. Every 
time I go through the city I see hundreds of them wad- 
dling along. They throng the bazaars, where they bob 
back and forth as they talk with the merchants. They 
may be seen picking their way through the side streets 
or sitting on the floors of the mosques reading the Koran 
and watching the men go through their prayers. Many 
of the shrouded figures are those of small girls. They 

224 



The street-dress of the woman of Damascus is a bag of black silk tied 
in at the waist and a black veil so thick that she can hardly see her way 
about. Feminism and style-changes make little headway in Moslem 
lands 




I am five feet eight inches tall but could not reach to the upper edge 
of this fragment of one of the giant columns at Baalbek. Once a centre 
of worship of Baal, there were built later temples to Jupiter, Mercury, 
Venus, and Bacchus 



THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 



take the veil at eleven or twelve and keep it on after 
marriage and indeed until death. 

And then the houses! All of the Mohammedans have 
homes so latticed that the women cannot be seen from the 
streets. In some cases the windows are built over the 
sidewalks, hanging out like cages of wooden network. 
This is true even in the new apartment houses which 
are now going up, as well as in the huts of the poor, al- 
though the latter seldom have windows except at the 
back. The ordinary lattice is made of canelike rushes 
or sticks, and preparing them is a special trade followed 
by many. The rushes are brought in to Damascus on the 
backs of donkeys, which as they go fill the streets with 
their loads. 

It behooves the Mohammedan woman to be strict in 
her conduct. The husband here has most of the rights, 
and can divorce his wife, or wives, whenever he will. 
He sometimes does so without thinking, and that to his 
sorrow. I heard of such a case yesterday. According to 
the laws of Damascus, if a man wishes to get rid of his 
wife he has only to say, "I divorce you! I divorce you! 
I divorce you!" and the woman must leave. Once she 
has gone she cannot come back as a wife until after she 
has been married to someone else. To get around this, 
an angry husband, relenting and longing for the dear de- 
parted, arranges to marry her to a friend, a dervish, or 
some half-crazy man, who for a sum will go through the 
ceremony of a wedding and immediately divorce the 
woman, who can then be married again to her former 
husband. In the case referred to the man had a petty 
quarrel with his wife, and angrily muttered the words of 
divorce. As soon as she had gone he repented, and there- 

225 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

upon brought about her marriage with an alleged friend, 
with the understanding that a divorce was to follow right 
after the ceremony. The friend, however, refused to 
utter the words of divorce, saying, "I like the woman 
and will keep her myself/' and so it is at this writing. 

Such divorces are always on the part of the husband. 
As for the women, they have more difficulty in getting 
rid of the marriage tie, although they can do so provided 
the husband does not perform his duty to them or give 
them an equal amount of attention with the other wives 
of the family. According to Mohammed every man had 
the right to four wives, but the Koran provides that he 
must spend an equal time with each of them, and in some 
places he is required to give each a separate establishment. 

During my travels in the Holy Land I have picked up 
some interesting stories of marriage and divorce. Every 
sect has its own customs. The Jews can divorce easily, 
and after that they can marry again. The orthodox 
Greeks can marry only three times, and some of the 
Christians are not allowed a divorce without cause. 

In all of the Jewish weddings the girl brings a dowry, 
the amount of the dot being mentioned in the contract 
of marriage. This contract is always signed in the 
presence of the rabbi, and the wedding ceremony takes 
place under a tent in the court of the synagogue. Be- 
fore marriage the orthodox bride is shaved from her 
head to her feet, after which her head is always kept 
covered. At the ceremony and after it they have music, 
with drums, cymbals, and harps; and many of the old- 
fashioned customs of Bible times are observed. The 
Jews marry young, and a girl is an old maid at twenty. 

The Mohammedans of the villages usually take wives 

226 



THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 

in their early teens, marriages at twelve years being not 
uncommon. This is the case only with the girls. The 
men are usually older, and it is customary for mature 
men to marry young girls and to add to their harems as 
the first wives grow older. In such cases the groom pays 
money to the father of the bride. This is the reverse of 
the Jewish marriages, where the money goes to the groom. 
The price for a Moslem wife ranges from one hundred 
dollars upward, according to the financial condition of 
the contracting parties. The contracts are made by the 
older people of the family. If there is a father he decides 
upon the marriage. If the father is dead the eldest 
brother may act, or in some cases the mother. 

The customs as to the right of the family to dictate the 
marriage are rigid. The other day a peasant living near 
Jerusalem had a sister who ran away with her lover and 
married him. This was after the family had objected to 
the match. The peasant took a revolver and went after 
the bridal couple. He caught up with his brother-in- 
law in Jerusalem and shot him dead on the street. When 
arrested he justified the crime and he is now imprisoned 
awaiting trial. I am told he will get off with a slight 
punishment, as he has acted within his rights according 
to the Koran. 

Among the city Mohammedans the bridegroom makes 
a present of a dowry sufficient to enable his bride to pur- 
chase her trousseau and household furniture. He may 
give her six or eight hundred dollars, the greater part of 
which will be paid to her nearest male relative before the 
wedding takes place. On the other hand, he and that 
relative may buy the outfit together, making items of 
the various things and their cost. Often the whole 

227 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

dowry is not paid at once, 25 or 30 per cent, being left 
until after the wedding. This is not demanded except in 
case of divorce, and it is considered a premium that will 
insure good treatment from the husband. 

The bride seldom even sees the groom before the wed- 
ding, and the couple never meet until that time. The in- 
vestigations of both families are carried on by the fathers 
and mothers independent of the real parties to the 
marriage. 

When a boy is old enough to have a wife, let us say 
at seventeen, his parents begin to look about for a suit- 
able girl. The mother goes to the harems of her ac- 
quaintances, and asks about the daughters. She also 
visits the girls' schools, and when she has found a maiden 
who she thinks may suit she invites the mother of the 
girl to meet her at the bath. This is one of the chief 
places of gossip and pleasure and it is not uncommon for 
ladies to meet there. To the bath comes the prospective 
bride with her mother for her first interview with her 
would-be mother-in-law. The two talk and gossip to- 
gether. After the bath is over they have something 
to eat. 

There is more talking, and the girl is sized up mentally 
and physically. Upon her return home the mother of 
the groom tells her husband the result of her investiga- 
tions, and if he is pleased, negotiations are begun with 
the parents of the bride. If agreeable, the dowry is fixed 
and the betrothal is made. Neither the marriage nor 
the betrothal can be consummated without the consent 
of the girl. The man, or a Mohammedan priest, appears 
at the door of the harem of the bride's mother. The 
girl, who is behind the door, is asked if she will consent 

228 



Man is dwarfed by the enormous portal of the Temple of Bacchus con- 
sidered the finest architectural feature of the structure. This is one of 
the most beautiful and best preserved ruins in Syria 



Standing out against the sky are these mighty columns, all that re- 
main of the fifty-four that once surrounded the Great Temple of the 
Sun at Baalbek. They are visible to the traveller long before he reaches 
the ruins 



THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 

to the match. She has to answer " I will !" three separate 
times, after which the amount of the dowry may be paid 
over in the presence of witnesses. 

In all oriental countries the wedding ceremonies are 
very important. The marriage is always an occasion 
of protracted festivities, and not to be invited is to suffer 
a grave insult. One of the proverbs here is, " He who does 
not invite me to his marriage will not have me at his 
funeral." Among the Mohammedans the wedding cere- 
monies often last a week, during which there is feasting 
on the part of both families. The dinners are given 
before the wedding, and at the time of the ceremony sums 
of money are thrown to the beggars. The wedding 
feasts usually begin Monday. Tuesday the bride is taken 
to the bath where there is a feast, the bridegroom paying 
the expenses of the bathing and eating. 

Wednesday the bridegroom's women friends go to the 
house of the bride where they have a concert and dinner. 
The fingernails and toenails of the bride are stained red 
with henna and they begin to deck her out for the wed- 
ding. Thursday a great procession escorts the bride to 
the groom's house where the two eat candy, exchanging 
mouthfuls or bites, the idea being that nothing but sweet- 
ness is hereafter to pass from the lips of one to the other. 
The bridegroom has not seen the bride until this time. 
He says a prayer in her presence, kneeling on her bridal 
veil as he does so. 

Among the Mohammedans of Palestine, says my guide 
Shammas, the wedding usually takes place at the mosque, 
and the bridegroom meets his bride when she is on the 
way thither. Dressed and veiled in white, she is carried 
under a canopy on the shoulders of four men. At the 

229 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



mosque the wedding sermon is preached, and at the end 
of this the bride goes to the house of her husband. As 
she steps over the threshold she bends down and passes 
under two crossed swords upheld by his friends. This 
means that if she is not true to her husband he will kill 
her. She is taken first to the women's apartment or 
harem over the door of which has been placed a piece 
of leavened dough, thus signifying that the home into 
which she has come will flourish. In some cases the 
bride breaks a piece of leavened bread and gives it to 
the young people to eat. 

After she has entered her own apartment in the groom's 
house there is a feast, the guests sitting on the floor and 
eating course after course of meats and vegetables inter- 
spersed with candies and sirups. In some cases the 
groom has to make the bride speak before the dinner 
will be served, and it is a virtue with her to keep silent 
just as long as she can. 

It is the general idea among Christians that Moham- 
medan wives have no rights which their husbands are 
bound to respect. I am told this is not so, and that the 
women here not infrequently rule their husbands. The 
cost of living has increased so much within recent years 
that it is only a rich Mohammedan who can afford 
several wives. Public sentiment as to the rights of wo- 
men has risen, and the man who abuses his wives is not 
considered respectable. No man dares address a strange 
woman on the streets of any Turkish city, and in the 
best-regulated houses the husband does not enter the 
women's apartments when he knows he is not wanted, 
although he has the legal right to go there at any time. 

The Mohammedan wife has the entire right and con- 

230 



THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS 

trol of her own property, and if she brings money into the 
family she does not hesitate to say so. She has about as 
much power in the courts as our women have. She can 
sue and be sued and can even enter a suit against her 
husband in regard to her own property. She can make a 
will and leave her property as she pleases, and she can 
force him to pay the dowry agreed upon. When she 
marries he has to buy the wedding gown, and if he di- 
vorces her she gets back her trousseau. 

It is said that women are still bought and sold in the 
Turkish possessions. Not long ago there was a regular 
trade in the black girls who were brought across the 
Sahara from Central Africa and shipped through Trip- 
oli into Syria and other parts of Turkey. Before the 
English took hold of Egypt this traffic was carried on 
through the Nile Valley and was winked at by the 
officials. 

According to the law of the Koran marriages with 
slaves are legal. The wives of the Sultans have usually 
been slaves brought in from Georgia and Circassia, 
plump girls with fair complexions and red hair bringing 
the highest prices, perhaps as much as the cost of half a 
dozen fine white horses. I hear that Circassian girls 
often welcomed being sold, as they thus escaped the 
hardships of their own country. Such as could play 
on the zither and other musical instruments always 
brought more than the ignorant. In the past, five 
thousand dollars was not a high price for a Circassian 
girl, while any good-looking Georgian maiden of twelve 
would bring two hundred dollars and upward. The 
children of such slave wives are legitimate. 



231 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

I AM in the Valley of Lebanon, the high, narrow plain 
which lies between the two ranges of the Lebanon 
Mountains. The word Lebanon means "white," 
perhaps because of the walls of chalk or limestone 
which are a feature of the whole range. Just now the 
highest peaks are white with snow. These ranges ex- 
tend north and south parallel with the coast of the 
Mediterranean Sea. Beginning a little below the bor- 
der of Asia Minor, they lose themselves in the Holy Land. 
In reading of them I have always thought they were only 
hills. They are higher than any mountains of our coun- 
try east of the Mississippi, and the average height of the 
range nearest the coast is a thousand feet greater than 
that of Mount Washington. Mount Hermon is more 
than nine thousand feet high and Jebel Makmel measures 
ten thousand two hundred feet. The elevation of the 
Valley of Lebanon itself is twice that of the topmost 
peaks of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, and it slopes from 
here to the north as far as Aleppo and to the south beyond 
Dan, where rises the Jordan. 

In this little valley, which is less than one hundred 
miles long and from five to eight miles wide, walled by 
these mighty mountains, lie the ruins of Baalbek, once 
the most wonderful temples known to the ages. I have 
spent hours in wandering through them, and their im- 

232 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

mensity and beauty steadily grow upon me. I despair 
of being able to describe them and can only hope to give 
you bits of the details. 

I have seen most of the world's mighty ruins. In the 
past year I have wandered through the tombs of the 
Mings outside Mukden, Manchuria; I have stood upon 
the Temple of Heaven in Peking, and have climbed the 
great Chinese wall. I have gone through the Temples 
of Karnak at the hundred-gated city of Thebes far up 
the Nile; I have taken photographs of the Colossi of 
Memnon, and have measured the stones of the Pyramids 
with a two-foot rule. Not long ago I visited the Temple 
of Boro Boedor in the heart of Java to describe its three 
miles of unique carvings, and last year I spent some time 
in the forts of the Moguls at Delhi and wrote of the 
Taj Mahal and its marvellous beauties. I have also seen 
Timgad, the excavated city on the edge of the Sahara, and 
have lately gone through the Colosseum at Rome and 
inspected the equally imposing amphitheatre at El Djem 
in the heart of the Tunisian desert. All these are wonder- 
ful, but Baalbek is their superior. 

These ruins have never been so impressive as they are 
now. For centuries most of them have been as much 
buried as is Herculaneum, and it was only when the 
Emperor of Germany made his tour through this part of 
the world, that they began to be brought to the light of 
day. 

I have marched in the Kaiser's footsteps through 
Palestine and have seen there the churches and other 
monuments which he had erected. Before he came to 
Syria he stopped at Constantinople with the Sultan 
Abdul Hamid, who gave him a permit to do about as he 

233 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

pleased. As the Kaiser travelled he flattered the Mo- 
hammedans, the Christians, and the Jews. He was alive 
to every possibility, and he stamped "Made in Germany" 
upon every city he visited. In Damascus he laid a golden 
wreath on the tomb of Saladin, the famous soldier who 
fought the Crusaders; and about Jerusalem he built 
hospitals, schools, and a great sanatorium. Here at 
Baalbek the Sultan gave him permission to do anything 
he liked. In the Temple of the Sun is a tablet bearing an 
inscription in German and Arabic testifying his regard 
for the Sultan and his pleasure at visiting the ruins. 
Shortly after leaving he sent German scientists, who 
organized an army of natives and put them to work ex- 
cavating the temples. The Germans laid down a rail- 
road track for the dirt cars to carry away mountains of 
earth and debris. As a result of their work and modern 
machinery for lifting huge stones into place we have at 
last a view of these most wonderful temples more as they 
were in their glory. 

But first let me tell you something about the origin of 
these structures and the gods to whom they were dedi- 
cated. The Arabs claim that this, rather than Damascus, 
is the oldest city in the world. They say that Adam 
lived here, and that it was between here and the Medi- 
terranean that Cain killed Abel. One of Adam's favour- 
ite residences was Damascus, and Seth lived at Nebi 
Schitt in the Lebanon Mountains. They will show you 
where Noah was buried and the town in which Ham lived. 
They also think that Nimrod reigned in this valley, and 
they have a tradition that when an angel called upon him 
he threw the holy one into a blazing furnace from which 
he came out unharmed. They locate the Tower of 

234 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

Babel at Baalbek and believe that Nimrod built it. Ac- 
cording to another legend, Abraham reigned at Damascus 
and came here frequently. It is also well known that 
Solomon had a city named Baalath, in which other gods 
than Jehovah were worshipped. Indeed, it is said that 
Solomon, in order to please his concubines, built a temple 
here and that he had a castle which he gave as a present 
to Balkis, the Queen of Sheba. 

Baalbek was well known in the days of the Phoenicians 
and was a great city in the time of Christ. It was about 
a hundred years after that that the finest of the temples, 
the ruins of which we see to-day, were constructed. 
Then the Roman civilization was in the height of its glory, 
and the emperors were building cities in north Africa, in 
Asia Minor, and in other parts of the world. The Romans 
put up the temples here in honour of Jupiter (Baal), 
which had in them smaller temples to Venus and Bac- 
chus. They worshipped Baal, the god of the sun, as one 
of the greatest of their deities, although they had other 
gods without number. 

As to the worship of Baal, there have been gods of that 
name almost since the beginnings of history. It is a 
question, indeed, whether the word Baal did not mean 
"lord," being a general term for male gods of various kinds. 
Later on the Greeks considered Baal the god of the sun, 
classing him with the god represented by Helios, in whose 
honour the city of Heliopolis in Egypt was built. The 
worship of Baal runs through the Bible. Samuel rebuked 
the Israelites for bowing down to him, and Jezebel had 
four hundred priests of Baal who were confounded by 
Elijah. Indeed, it is a question whether Beelzebub, or 
the devil, was not Baalzebub. 

235 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Here at Baalbek the finest statue was that of this god. 
It was of gold and represented a beardless young man 
clad in armour standing between two golden bulls. He 
held a whip in his right hand and a thunderbolt and some 
ears of corn in his left. There were also statues of Mer- 
cury and Venus, a Hall of Bacchus, and statues and 
statuettes of exquisite workmanship. These images were 
destroyed by the early Christians, who threw down parts 
of the temples and broke up the carvings in their de- 
testation of all pagan art. 

It is impossible to give pictures of the ruins and of the 
mighty temples as they were in their wonderful beauty. 
The ruins cover more than ten acres, and the Great Tem- 
ple alone was about three hundred feet long by one 
hundred and sixty feet wide. It had a roof upheld by 
Corinthian columns only, six of which are now standing. 
These columns are eighty feet high and twenty-two feet in 
circumference. In entering the temples I went up a gigan- 
tic staircase, a great part of which has been destroyed, and 
came into what is known as the forecourt, which is about 
two hundred feet wide, and the floor of which was paved 
with mosaic. 

We next went through another court, known as the 
Court of the Altar, which must cover five or six acres. It 
is a mass of marble and granite, gigantic columns and 
delicate carvings being thrown helter-skelter together. 
Beyond this and up a series of steps are the ruins of the 
Great Temple itself. At the left is the exquisite Temple 
of Bacchus, and everywhere are great shafts of marble 
so wonderfully carved that they would be treasures in 
any museum. 

All this, however, gives no idea of the construction. 

236 




The nomadic Bedouins live in brown tents so low that the people have 
to stoop to get into them. They camp wherever they find good grazing 
for their stock 



The desolation of the once heavily wooded mountains of Lebanon is 
emphasized by the lonely grove of cedars. This grove, far up among the 
snows, is protected by a wall and contains four hundred very old trees 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

People wonder how the mighty stones of the Pyramids 
were put into place, and books have been written to show 
how the obelisks were taken from the quarries to the sites 
where they were erected as monuments. The building 
of the temples of Baalbek was a far greater mechanical 
triumph. The materials, including columns weighing 
hundreds of tons, had to be brought up the steep Leba- 
non Mountains and carried over passes higher than the 
tops of the Alleghanies. There is granite here which 
came from far up the Nile; there are marbles from 
Greece, and great limestone blocks from the quarries 
near by. The temple has walls sixty feet high, and the 
mighty columns — seven feet in diameter, and, including 
the pedestals and capitals, as tall as an eight-story build- 
ing — rest upon a platform which is more than fifty feet 
high. These mighty pillars are put up in three sections 
each twenty feet or more in height and seven feet in 
diameter. They are so put together that each column 
looks like one solid block. 

In the walls of the temple foundation are what are, I 
venture, the biggest building blocks ever quarried. One 
of the walls has three great limestone blocks each of which 
measures sixty-four feet long, thirteen feet wide, and 
twelve feet thick. If such stones were placed end to 
end it would take only about eighty of them to make one 
mile. These stones were brought from a quarry about a 
mile away. Some of them have been placed upon the 
walls at a distance of thirty or more feet from the ground, 
and are so accurately laid that a knife blade cannot be 
driven between them. 

I got an idea of the size of these blocks by visiting the 
quarries. Just outside that from which the stones came 

237 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

is one which was cut out of the rock, but for some reason 
or other was not carried to the structure. It was dragged 
only a few feet away from the virgin rock, and to-day 
lies there on its side, half buried in the earth. Upon 
its top I walked over it. It is so wide that you could 
drive two motor cars abreast upon it without risk of fall- 
ing over the edges, and an English traveller here says 
that a cricket match might be played upon its face, 
putting the stakes at the right distance apart and giving 
the bowler at least two feet at the end for his run. This 
block is as smooth as a marble column and accurately 
square. Each side of it measures fourteen feet and it is 
about seventy feet long. If it were stood on end inside 
a modern ten-story apartment house it would fill ten 
rooms one above the other, each room fourteen feet 
square and seven feet high. It has been estimated to 
weigh fifteen hundred tons and if cut up would make a 
good load for thirty flat cars. 

Think of moving stones like that out of the mountains 
and up and down hill for a mile without the aid of steam, 
electricity, or any kind of machinery! That is the kind 
of work the Romans did eighteen hundred years ago. 
All through the temples you may see examples of such 
huge masses moved about and lifted into place. 

There are carvings more beautiful than anything seen 
on our buildings to-day. On some of the blocks still in 
the structure I saw bunches of grapes no bigger than my 
thumb as beautifully cut as though made by nature. 
There were also Cupids and cherubs exquisitely carved. 
It was said of the artists who built the great temples of 
Delhi and Agra in India that they worked like Titans 
and finished like jewellers. The same was true of 

238 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

the Romans of the reigns of Antonius, Caracalla, and 
Nero. 

I have taken photographs of some of the broken col- 
umns with myself standing beside them to give an idea of 
their size. I am five feet eight inches tall and the large 
columns are fully two feet more in diameter. Some of 
the wonderful carvings are those which form the frieze 
above the great pillars two or three hundred feet high up 
in the air. Among them are the heads of gigantic lions, 
each head as big as a flour barrel but polished like a 
fine marble mantel. Through the mouths of these lions 
emptied the drains of the roof. 

The beauties of the temples will be preserved from now 
on. They are under official guard, and tickets which 
cost a dollar apiece are required of all who go in. I was 
shown through by Dr. Michel Alouf, an archaeologist, who 
explained just how the temples looked in the past. He 
showed me where the early Christians had erected a 
church inside one temple, defacing the carvings and 
breaking the noses of the beautiful statues. They took 
pleasure in destroying the work wrought by heathen art- 
ists in honour of pagan gods. Next came the Arabs, who 
used the place as a fort, throwing great round chunks 
of marble as big as footballs from its sheltering walls. 
There are piles of these marble balls inside the temple 
to-day. They were probably cut from the columns. 
The Arabs made a mosque in the temple. They wiped 
out every trace of the Christian religion and used a part 
of the church for a bath. After them came an earthquake, 
so that the ruins were mostly covered up until the Ger- 
mans began their excavations. 

I am stopping here in the little town of Baalbek, which 

239 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

stands right on the edge of the ruins. It has an excellent 
hotel, and its people are hospitable. Its population of 
five or six thousand is made up of Mohammedans and 
Christians. Besides a small garrison of soldiers, there 
are two Greek Catholic monasteries and several girls' 
schools. The children followed us as we walked about 
through the ruins, selling purses made of Syrian silk 
into which they had woven a design of the six great col- 
umns of the temple. They also asked for baksheesh, and 
the begging palm was everywhere thrust out. 

I am surprised at the scanty forestation of these moun- 
tains of Lebanon. I had expected to find them covered 
with woods, whereas they are almost treeless. Their 
lower slopes are well cultivated and some of them are 
terraced almost to the top. Thousands of acres, made up 
of little patches, rise step-like one above another, covering 
the hills for miles and miles. These patches contain 
mulberry orchards and vineyards. There are also peaches 
and apples, and in the valleys are rich fields of wheat, 
barley, and clover. The chief formation is limestone, 
and though there are rocks everywhere, the soil seems 
wonderfully rich. 

The cedars of Lebanon may have been great in the past, 
but they have now almost disappeared. The only ones 
left are situated about nine or ten hours from Baalbek. 
The trees grow in the thin soil, which covers the white 
limestone, the ground being coated with spines, cones, 
and leaves. Five are very ancient and of great girth, 
but the tallest is not more than eighty feet high. The 
largest of all is about fifteen feet thick, so you see they 
are mere sprouts in comparison with the Big Trees of 
California and quite small as compared with the giants 

240 



Of the great cedars of Lebanon which Solomon used in building his tem- 
ple, only a few are left. The ancient Israelites regarded these trees as 
the ornaments of the mountains and the types of manly strength and 
beautv 




The plain of Beirut is covered with luxuriant gardens, and tree-lined 
avenues lead out of the city. Beirut, one of the oldest cities on the 
Phoenician Coast, is the metropolis of Syria and Lebanon and the sea- 
port of Damascus 



BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL 

of Washington and Oregon. The cedars which were taken 
for the temple at Jerusalem probably came from the region 
where the old cedars stand, although other parts of the 
Lebanon Mountains may then have been covered with 
woods. The logs must have been cut in the forests and 
carried over the mountains forty or fifty miles to the 
seacoast. The rafting was done under the direction of 
King Hiram of Tyre, and the logs were probably towed 
down to Jaffa, and thence carried up the mountains of 
Judea to Jerusalem, a distance of about forty miles. The 
cedars bear cones about as large as a goose egg. The 
leaves or spines of the cones are solid rather than de- 
tached, as those of our cedars at home. The wood is 
whitish in colour; it is soft, and for building is far inferior 
to cypress or pine. 



241 



CHAPTER XXIX 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS BY RAIL 

IT SEEMS almost sacrilegious to travel by rail over the 
highways of the Bible. The iron tracks are laid in 
the pathways of the prophets, and the ghosts of 
the saints may be roused by the shriek of the loco- 
motives. The modern traveller can cover in a few hours 
by rail distances that were several days' journey in the 
times of our Lord. 

My first railroad trip in the Holy Land was from the 
port of Jaffa up the mountains of Judea to the city of 
Jerusalem. My second was on the Mecca road from the 
lower end of the Sea of Galilee through the great plains 
of the Hauran to Damascus over the mountains of Leba- 
non to Beirut on the Mediterranean Sea. During the 
latter trip I went from Rayak, in the Valley of Lebanon, 
between the two ranges of mountains, along the road 
which has been built northward through the Ccele- 
Syria to Aleppo. 

All of these roads are comparatively new, and some are 
still building. The Mecca line now runs as far south as 
Medina, where Mohammed came after his flight from 
Mecca, and where his tomb is. That city has something 
like forty thousand people and is one of the most fanatical 
of the Moslem centres. It will be the chief stopping 
place on the way to Mecca. 

Mecca lies about two hundred and fifty miles still far- 

242 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS 



ther south and the track is being laid toward that point. 
When the first surveys were made there were two Chris- 
tian civil engineers in the surveying party, but the people 
were so intolerant that these men were kept hidden the 
greater part of the time and did their work inside the 
tents. They were not allowed to spy out the land, to 
see, or be seen. 

The Bedouins are now causing the contractors consid- 
erable trouble. The road will take a large part of the 
pilgrimage traffic, which, it has been estimated, is worth 
to Arabia some ten million dollars a year. Much of the 
money goes to the owners of the camels and the leaders 
of the caravans, who are Bedouins. During the building 
of the road many of these have been employed in the 
construction and in supplying the other labourers with 
food. As the present work has neared its completion, 
many of the Bedouins have lost their jobs. They are ob- 
jecting to the railway and have torn up the tracks in 
many places. The result is a great unrest which threat- 
ens to cause serious disturbance. 

The traffic on the Constantinople-Damascus and Mecca 
railways will be made up largely of men on their way to 
worship at Mecca and Medina. Now, with nothing but 
camels to carry them, it is estimated that about four 
hundred thousand go there every year, and it is believed 
that the railway will increase the traffic from fifty to 
one hundred per cent. Christians and other unbelievers 
will not be carried to the holy cities, although they may 
make tours to Petra and other parts of Arabia. 

This Mecca railway will have special accommodations 
for Mohammedans. Certain of the carriages will be 
fitted up as mosques, so that the travellers can perform 

243 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

their devotions during the journey. The praying car- 
riages will be luxuriously furnished. The floors will be 
covered with Persian carpets, and around the sides will 
be painted verses from the Koran in letters of gold. A 
chart will indicate the direction of Mecca, so that the 
Faithful can always face the right way when praying, and 
there will also be a minaret on the top of the car six and 
a half feet high. 

The Mecca road is a narrow-gauge with French rolling 
stock. The material has been imported from Europe, 
the ties being of iron to withstand the white ants, which 
eat anything wooden. One of the great difficulties of 
construction has been the lack of water. The road goes 
for long stretches through the desert, and many of the 
trains carry large tanks to keep the boilers full. 

I travelled over a part of the Mecca road on my way from 
the Holy Land north to Damascus. Leaving Tiberias 
in the early morning, I was rowed by four lusty Syrians 
across the Sea of Galilee to Semakh, which is the station 
on the lower end of that sea and the place where a branch 
line runs off to Haifa. From there northward we skirted 
the east side of the Sea of Galilee, passing the hills upon 
which our Saviour preached. We rode up the valley of 
the Yarmuk, a stream almost as large as the Jordan, which 
loses itself in the Jordan farther south. We climbed the 
foothills of Lebanon, and at about three thousand feet 
above the surface of the Sea of Galilee reached the rich 
plain of Hauran, the great bread basket of the Bedouins. 
It grows wheat and other grain, and the land near the 
track was covered with poppies, golden daisies, and wild 
red hollyhocks. 

We could see Bedouin camps everywhere. These no- 

244 




The stones for the Tuberculosis Hospital at Juneh had to be carried up 
one at a time on the backs of camels 



From Beirut and its vicinity come nearly all of the Syrian immigrants 
to the United States. Most of them are Christians and many of them 
have felt the influence of the American University, the centre of advanced 
thought in the Near East 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS 



mads live in brown tents so low that the people have to 
stoop to get in. Outside each little group of tents was 
an inclosure for the stock, and on the lands near by cat- 
tle and camels were grazing. As we travelled we could 
see great flocks of black goats feeding on the sides of the 
Lebanon Mountains. They hung to the cliffs, looking 
much like flies on the wall. There were also droves of 
black cattle and many flocks of fat-tailed white sheep. 

The cars were crowded with Turks, Syrians, and Bed- 
ouins, but on the advice of a friend I gave the conductor 
a dollar, and in return had a compartment all to myself. 
Baksheesh will do anything in Syria. As Shammas, my 
guide, puts it: "The franc is the wheel upon which the 
world goes round." 

This road to Damascus, beginning with the branch line 
to Haifa, skirts the edge of Mount Carmel, where Elijah 
lived in a cave and where he contended with the four 
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and caused their de- 
struction. It goes up the plain of Esdraelon, where the 
fair Jezebel lived and over which Jehu galloped to Jez- 
reel on his race for the throne. It takes you in plain 
sight of Mount Tabor and under the hills of Nazareth 
where the Saviour's boyhood and young manhood were 
spent. It crosses the spot where Jael was camping when 
Sisera came and she lulled him to sleep to drive the tent 
peg into his forehead. Then it goes on up to Damascus 
over a route which was probably travelled by Abraham, 
David, and Solomon, and by St. Paul when he was 
blinded by the great light. 

The road to Jerusalem goes over the plains where the 
Israelites fought with the Philistines, through the country 
of Samson, which I have already described, and near the 

245 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



place where David with his little stone slew the great 
Goliath. 

The railway from Damascus to Beirut shows you Mount 
Hermon, so famed in the Psalms, and passes numerous 
places, which, according to the Mohammedans, were the 
homes and tombs of the prophets. Take, for instance, 
Suk Wady Baroda, a little valley oasis on the way to 
Baalbek made up of flat-roofed mud houses surrounded 
by orchards and vineyards. It is mentioned by Josephus 
and is referred to in St. Luke as the home of the tetrarch 
Lysanias. The Mohammedans say that Adam lived in 
the mountain which looks down upon it, and that it was 
near the oasis itself that Cain became jealous of Abel 
and slew him. I have always thought that Abel was 
killed with a club, although I see now that the Bible does 
not mention the weapon used in the murder. The Mos- 
lem legend says it was a stone. The story is that Adam 
had divided the world into two sections and had given 
one of them to each of his boys. They had marked out 
their respective sections with stones, when a dispute arose 
concerning the boundary line. Cain claimed that Abel was 
inching on him, whereupon hot words passed, and Cain 
threw a rock and struck Abel in the temple and killed him. 

According to the Moslem tradition, Cain was filled with 
remorse. He did not know what to do with his dead 
brother, so he took the body on his back and carried it 
with him over the world for five hundred years. At the 
end of that time he returned to this mountain, where he 
saw two birds fighting. At last one killed the other and 
then washed and buried the one slain. Cain did like- 
wise with Abel, and straightway there sprang up seven 
oak trees, which are pointed out to this day. 

246 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS 



According to the same authorities, Seth, Adam's son, 
who took the place of Abel, lived on the western slope of 
the Lebanon range, and his tomb is still there. A mosque 
is built over it and the tomb may be seen through an iron 
grating. It is eighty feet long, but the people living in 
the village say that it was too short and that Seth's legs 
had to be doubled up in order to fit. Not far away is 
the tomb of Noah, which is forty feet longer. It also 
has a mosque connected with it. 

The distance from Damascus to Beirut is ninety-one 
miles. Travellers are advised not to take the third class, 
and women should always go first class. The third 
class has compartments eight feet wide running across 
the cars at right angles with the engine. Each compart- 
ment has two cushioned benches facing each other, its 
sides are walled with windows, and there is a door at each 
end. The conductor does not go through the cars, but 
collects the tickets from the outside, walking along a 
running board which extends the full length of the car 
and holding on to an iron rail fastened to the outside 
some distance above the step. 

The road is picturesque and gives magnificent views 
of the Lebanon Mountains. The track winds its way up 
and down the hills, and the western side of the range 
is so steep that the cars are taken up on cogs after the 
same manner as on Pike's Peak, Mount Washington, 
and the Rigi. There are twenty-five stations, mostly 
two-story buildings of stone. 

The passengers are the conglomerate mixture of human- 
ity found in this part of the Orient. There are scores 
of Syrians in long coats and trousers, some wearing 
red fezzes, and others having turbans or handkerchiefs 

247 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



wrapped around their heads. There are Turkish officers in 
uniform, with swords at their sides, fez-capped boys in 
silk gowns, and other Moslems in turbans and gowns. 
There are Mohammedan women clad all in black and 
wearing black veils. There are pretty Greek girls with 
bare faces, brown-skinned women from the mountains, 
and Bedouins, who have ropes tied about the kerchiefs 
which half shroud their fierce features. There are also 
Persians, Druses, and Christians of all sorts and condi- 
tions. 

The trains go slowly in climbing the mountain. The 
average express makes less than sixteen miles an hour, 
while the mixed train takes twelve hours to make the 
ninety-one miles. 

For many years the European powers have been schem- 
ing for the right to build railroads in this part of the world. 
One of the biggest and most talked-of projects is a line 
to open up the rich valley of the Euphrates where Baby- 
lon and Nineveh once flourished. It has some of the 
best lands on the face of the globe, and it has been sug- 
gested that it was the site of the Garden of Eden. The 
British are especially interested in the project because 
of their irrigation plans for Mesopotamia headed by Sir 
William Willcocks, the engineer for the Aswan Dam, 
which has redeemed about seven million acres in Egypt. 
The Germans won out in the scramble for the concession 
to build the road to Bagdad. The line was divided into 
sections and the Germans pushed on the work rapidly. 
Another concession to part of this line was granted by 
the Sultan to a group of Americans, but their plans fell 
through. 

As to the resources to be developed by these new roads, 

248 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS 

they are beyond description enormous. They include 
rich deposits of coal, oil, and other minerals. Asia Minor 
is rich agriculturally. The plains of Mesopotamia will 
raise anything that can be grown in Egypt, and the new 
irrigation schemes will make them as productive as they 
were when Nebuchadnezzar was reigning at Babylon. In 
ancient times that country had a population of more than 
six million. It has not one fourth as many to-day. I 
am told that cotton will grow not only there but also 
throughout Asia Minor, and it may be that one of the 
chief competitors of our Southern plantations will even- 
tually be found in this now almost waste but potentially 
rich part of the world. 

The famous Berlin-to-Bagdad scheme is not the only 
evidence of the German Kaiser's desire to gobble up as 
much of the Near East as possible. I use the word 
" gobble " advisedly. According to the Century Dic- 
tionary, it means " to swallow in large pieces, to swallow 
hastily, to seize upon with greed, and to appropriate 
graspingly." And that aptly describes the German 
methods. I have seen German Kultur at work all during 
this trip. 

In the richest parts of Palestine I saw their flourishing 
colonies. At Jerusalem I saw the great German church 
built under the very shadow of the Holy Sepulchre, their 
huge church on Mount Zion beyond the Tower of David, 
and the enormous limestone hospice erected in honour of 
Kaiserin Augusta on a commanding slope of the Mount 
of Olives. It is said that the money with which the site 
was bought and some of that used in the building was a 
silver wedding present to the Empress. It was known 
that she greatly loved Palestine, and her friends planned 

249 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



this memorial as a silver wedding gift. The hospice is 
several hundred feet above Jerusalem, and standing 
upon its roof on a bright day one can look across the hills 
of Judea and see the silvery thread of the Jordan and the 
shining Dead Sea with the blue mountains of Moab 
beyond. 

The Kaiser was no respecter of persons, either living or 
dead. The site of his big church was purchased by him 
of Sultan Adbul Hamid when he visited him in Constan- 
tinople. He went there on his way to the Holy Land, 
and while hobnobbing with the Sultan got him to sell 
him this tract for twenty-four thousand dollars. The 
land, however, was not large enough, so the Germans by 
a clever trick purchased for sixteen thousand dollars the 
American cemetery which adjoined the original tract. 

The Emperor of Germany when he made his trip 
through the Holy Land created as great a sensation as 
Theodore Roosevelt when he cavorted through Europe. 
Kaiser Wilhelm and his empress started in at Beirut 
and crossed the mountains of Lebanon to Baalbek and 
Damascus. They then returned to Beirut and took ship 
down the coast, past Tyre and Sidon, to the Bay of Acre. 
Here horses were waiting for them and they rode down 
around the slopes of Mount Carmel, over the plains of 
Sharon to Jaffa, and thence up the hills of Judea to 
Jerusalem. There were about a thousand in the party, 
and it required one thousand two hundred and fifty mules 
and horses to carry them and their baggage. The Em- 
peror himself had a staff of one hundred and twenty, 
who ate at his own tables, and there were in addition one 
hundred and forty naval and military officers. The Em- 
press also had her ladies-in-waiting with her. One hun- 

250 



ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS 



dred and seventy-five high Turks and officials were sup- 
plied by the Sultan as a special escort. The Emperor's 
tour was so arranged that he had four camps. He slept 
in a different camp every night and had a new one for 
each meal. 

Although the journey was made in October, the weather 
was hot, and the chief trouble was to supply the expedi- 
tion with water. Some died of thirst, and between Haifa 
and Jaffa six horses dropped dead of sunstroke. It was 
so hot that the trip to the Dead Sea and the Jordan was 
not attempted, but the Emperor went to Bethlehem and 
other places near by. He remained seven days at Je- 
rusalem, during which time he consummated his pur- 
chases of land. 

In Palestine I encountered a German tourist agency, a 
competitor of Thomas Cook & Son. This tourist agency 
had its own hotels at Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and its 
own guides, dragomans, horses, and carriages. Its men, 
who thoroughly understood the country, had established 
such relations with the Bedouin tribes that they could 
take parties anywhere. The agency's road mending and 
other activities had opened up many hitherto inaccessible 
parts of the country. Indeed, the Germans started a 
new roads movement in the Holy Land. The first at- 
tempt was made when the Kaiser went from Jaffa to 
Jerusalem. The Sultan had the highway repaired, and 
when the Germans travelled over it, it was watered for 
the first time in its history, being sprinkled from skin- 
bags carried from the shoulders of women and girls, and 
filled at the springs, wells, and cisterns near by. 



251 



CHAPTER XXX 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 

A MERICAN education is revolutionizing the Or- 
/\ ient. It has been one of the chief modernizing 
/ \ forces in Egypt, it had much to do with the 
^ ^revolution in Persia, and it is the basis of the re- 
organization of the whole Turkish Empire. The first 
schools of Egypt were started by the missionaries of the 
United Presbyterian Church, whose educational insti- 
tutions now cover the Nile Valley. This church has 
schools in the Sudan and a great American college at 
Asyut, several hundred miles from Cairo. The college 
was started in a donkey stable more than forty years 
ago, and it has been turning out graduates ever since. 
It has now more than one thousand students who are 
housed in ten large two-story buildings, and it has three 
of the finest halls to be found in the East. These are 
situated just outside Asyut, at the junction of the Nile 
with the great canal north of that city. The college has 
about three hundred women. 

I visited the college at Asyut not long ago. It is full 
to overflowing, and notwithstanding the new structure 
just completed it needs more money and more buildings. 
It has a great prestige throughout Egypt, and with a 
little money its efficiency could easily be doubled. The 
college is said to give a better education than the govern- 
ment institutions, and that at the lowest possible cost. 

252 



These are not stones of the field, but great blocks of marble, many of 
them beautifully carved — the remains of the wondrous city of Diana 




Storks build their nests in the palaces of Ephesus and the peasants fence 
their fields with chunks of marble from its once magnificent temples 




There is a great rustling as the silkworms attack their breakfast of 
mulberry leaves. Every year representatives of the silk industry in the 
Lebanon go abroad to get worms for breeding, as those bred in that 
region do not lay healthy eggs 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 

The tuition is nominal. For the poorest schools it is 
only about one dollar a term in money, and the ordinary 
rate is about ten dollars a year. The cost of the educa- 
tion varies with the taste of the students. These are of 
all classes from the sons of the poorest fellah to the heir 
of the highest pasha or richest merchant. There are 
three kinds of accommodations, the cost of which ranges 
from thirty-five dollars a year upward. The wealthy 
Egyptian boy can have his own room, or groups can live 
four in a room. He can eat at the best table, or he can 
get cheaper board with meat three or four times a week. 
On the other hand, he can work his way through college, 
furnishing his own food, buying vegetables and fish at 
very low cost. Many of the boys bring their bread from 
home. It is made of ground corn or millet and baked in 
cakes an inch thick. These cakes are toasted until they 
are as hard as stone, in which shape they will go through 
the term. Before going to a meal the students dip their 
bread in buckets of water set out for the purpose, and 
when it is soft carry it with them to the table. 

The Asyut institution has its graduates in all the gov- 
ernment departments of Egypt. They are among the 
leading merchants of the country, and every town has 
numbers of them. Many of them are Copts and not a 
few are Mohammedans. I am told that there are more 
than fifteen thousand boys now being educated in the 
United Presbyterian schools and colleges. 

Shortly before Sultan Abdul Hamid was ousted by the 
Young Turk party and carried to his prison in Saloniki, 
he referred bitterly to the work that Robert College had 
done in unsettling his empire. Said he: "That institution 
has cost me Bulgaria, and it is like to lose me my throne." 

253 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

He was right. Robert College was founded in Con- 
stantinople in 1863 by a New York merchant named 
Robert, who gave a large part of his fortune to this 
institution. He was aided by the Reverend Cyrus Hamlin, 
D.D., who was, I think, the real organizer. Since then 
its graduates have formed the leaven for new ideas 
throughout the Near East. Some of its graduates or- 
ganized the colleges and schools in Bulgaria. Others 
have been teaching in schools throughout the Turkish 
Empire; many have acted as officers of the Government, 
and some of the best leaders of Turkey to-day got their 
education at Robert College. 

Robert College has now five hundred or six hundred 
students, including Mohammedans, Jews, Armenians, 
and Russians, as well as representatives of the other na- 
tions about. The teaching is non-sectarian, although all 
are required to attend daily prayers and go to services on 
Sunday. The college has won the approval of the Gov- 
ernment, but the officials want it incorporated as a 
Turkish institution so it will be subject to their laws. 
To this the Americans naturally object. They say that 
they are organized under the laws of New York and they 
expect to stand by all the rights which they now enjoy 
as an American corporation under the protection of the 
United States Government. 

There is no doubt that the Americans are sensible in 
preferring the protection of Uncle Sam to that of the 
Sultan. Conditions are bound to be unsettled in this 
part of the world for years to come. There will be revo- 
lutions and counter-revolutions before the Turks come 
down to a solid, substantial, modern government. There 
is always the fear that the college will be put under a 

254 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 

strict censorship, as used to be the case. As it is now, 
the students can read what books they like, and there is 
little trouble as to the newspapers. They can go where 
they please without passports, and the present govern- 
ment seems to be doing all it can to promote education. 

Under the regime of Abdul Hamid it was far different. 
In his time every newspaper was carefully looked over by 
Turkish officials, and all sentences or words objectionable 
to the Government were cut out. This was true of 
papers coming in through the mail as well as of the 
native publications. Here in Beirut a Sunday weekly is 
published devoted largely to the life and sayings of our 
Saviour. The censors objected to it, saying: "The paper 
is a dangerous one, for in it they kill a King of the Jews 
every week. This might suggest the assassination of 
the Sultan, and we cannot permit it." 

Dr. Bliss, the president of the American University of 
Beirut, once imported an old copy of Shakespeare. It 
was kept at the customs house, the censor objecting to its 
importation. Said the latter : " Shakespeare is not a good 
book for the Turks. It has in it the story of a man named 
Macbeth who killed a king. It would be a bad example for 
our people.'' Dr. Bliss succeeded in getting his Shake- 
speare through by saying he had another copy of the same 
book, which, as it was already in the country, could not 
be taken out, and he would be glad to trade this for 
the new copy. The censor consented, accepted the 
Shakespeare which cost a dollar, and admitted the fine 
old edition instead. 

At another time some New Testaments sent to Con- 
stantinople were held back by one of the censors because 
of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. Galata is one 

255 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

of the divisions of Constantinople, and the censor asked: 
"Who is this man Paul, and why is he writing to our 
people in Galata?" He was with difficulty persuaded 
that St. Paul was dead and that his letter was not part 
of a plot. There is a story that a textbook on chemistry 
was kept out because a censor objected to the term H 2 0, 
saying that it seemed to mean that Hamid 1 1 (the Sultan, 
Abdul Hamid) amounted to nothing. 

In addition to Robert College and the institution at 
Asyut there is one here at Beirut which is quite as im- 
portant as either of the others. I refer to the American 
University of Beirut, founded by Americans in 1863, 
which has become the Harvard and Yale of the Near 
East. It has had thousands of graduates, and its doctors 
and lawyers stand at the heads of their professions in 
Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Persia, and India. It has more 
than nine hundred students, all Orientals, representing 
every part of the Levant. 

This institution was founded by Presbyterians, but 
the instruction is non-sectarian. The faculty has about 
one hundred and twenty professors, most of them 
Americans, and it is a thoroughly up-to-date university. 
It has a medical department which, with its hospitals, 
treats thousands of patients a year. It has physical, 
chemical, and other laboratories, a large library, and 
ethnological and industrial museums devoted to exhibits 
from Syria and Turkey. 

During my stay here I have visited the college. It 
is beautifully located, the buildings being situated on 
the bluffs south of Beirut and running from them down 
to the sea. Standing upon the campus, which contains 
about fifty acres, one faces the glorious Mediterranean, 

256 



Armenian children begin to make themselves useful at an early age. 
Centuries of hardships under anti-Christian rulers have made these 
people resourceful and self-reliant. They are the shrewdest traders of 
the East 




American relief in the Near East takes the practical form of getting 
the people back to the land, much of which has been devastated by one 
war after another 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 



while at his back are the snow-capped mountains of 
Lebanon with the rich vegetation climbing their slopes. 
The institution has a gymnasium, tennis courts, and good 
athletic grounds. Its students play football, baseball, 
and cricket. They are full of college spirit and have their 
college papers, their college songs, and their college yell. 

The boys have silver cups and other trophies which 
are contended for by the various athletic teams, and these 
Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, Egyptians, Armenians, 
and Turks are being welded into one brotherhood by 
the hard knocks of football and the track. 

The Beirut University is an American college and a 
Christian college as well, but it does not attempt to prose- 
lytize, and the Moslem can come to it without changing 
his religion. It insists only that everyone who goes 
through its courses shall attend chapel and the Bible 
classes, which study the Bible as one of the great influ- 
ences in the work of the world. Once the Moslem 
students struck against these regulations. They refused 
to go to chapel and took an oath not to attend the Bible 
classes. The strike created a sensation, and for a time 
it seemed as though it might do serious damage. The 
faculty, however, headed by the president, Dr. Howard 
S. Bliss, stood firm, saying that the school was a Christian 
college. They demanded that all students attend the 
religious services, and the result was that most of the 
strikers came in, and the college has gone along on its 
original lines. 

In talking about this to the Mohammedan students 
Dr. Bliss said: 

"Our college was established to give the Mohammedan 
world the best the Christian world has. Our aim is to 

257 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

make of you broad-minded, intelligent men whether you 
continue to be Moslems or become Christians. We be- 
lieve that the best thing we have is our religion, so we 
are bound to let you know what it is. Whether you 
accept it or not rests with yourselves. If, upon inves- 
tigation, you still think the Moslem religion the best, 
we believe that the knowledge you have of our religion 
will make you better and broader Moslems. Religion 
is for man, not man for religion, and we want you to 
have the training which will make each one of you the 
best man, whether he be Christian or Moslem." 

To-day the Mohammedan students attending the 
services look upon them as largely educational, and they 
study the Bible as history and literature. 

The influence of colleges like this goes far and wide. 
The students come from villages all over the Turkish 
Empire and from those of India and Persia as well. Going 
home, each forms a little hot-bed for the growth of inde- 
pendent thought. 

Civilized ideas are spread in other ways besides these. 
One of the great means of such distribution is the annual 
pilgrimage to Mecca, which is attended by nearly half 
a million Mohammedans from all parts of the Orient. 
At that time Mecca becomes a great camp meeting or 
bush meeting, such as we farmers have in Virginia. The 
people come together and gossip. They discuss the crops 
and ask one another how they are getting along. Hassan 
Ali of Egypt says to Mohammed of Turkey, "How is 
business? Are you making money, and how does your 
government treat you?" Mohammed replies that the 
Turks are taxed to death, but they hope for much under 
the new Sultan. Thereupon Hassan says that the English 

258 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 

have cut down the taxes in Egypt and that the church 
has plenty of money in the treasury. He tells how he 
has been able to send his boy to college, and that he 
hopes he will some day be an official. The Turk, there- 
upon, longs for a better government. At the same time 
the college students tell what they have learned, and as 
a result the twentieth-century spirit of modern progress 
is stirring the Mohammedan world. 

In addition to the collegiate work great advances in 
the spread of our civilization are being made by the 
Protestant missions. There are now thousands of native 
Christians in Syria and from seventy-five to one hundred 
thousand native Christians in the empire of Turkey. 
The American missionaries alone have more than one 
hundred schools, with five or six thousand pupils, and the 
English have many more. 

Here in Beirut is the largest and most up-to-date pub- 
lishing house in the Orient. It belongs to the American 
mission, and annually turns out tens of thousands of 
Bibles, school textbooks, and other works on religious 
and scientific subjects. Altogether, it has published 
more than seven hundred different works in Arabic, and 
it is estimated that it has printed in the neighbourhood 
of a billion pages of one kind or other. It issues around 
one hundred thousand volumes a year, containing alto- 
gether something like thirty million pages. Its Bibles 
published in Arabic are sold throughout the Mohamme- 
dan world. 

The medical missionaries are doing a great deal in all 
parts of the Orient. I have seen their hospitals every- 
where on my trips around the world. They are to be 
found in all parts of India, far up the Nile Valley, and in 

259 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



the leading centres of the Holy Land. One of the best 
I have visited is situated at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, 
and headed by Dr. Torrence, who has been treating the 
Bedouins and others there for the last thirty years. In 
my talk with him the question of tuberculosis came up, 
and he described the evils of the great white plague as 
they are found in his region on the very edge of the 
desert. He says tuberculosis is rife among the Bedouins 
although they live out of doors in the purest air all the 
time. He thinks that the disease is spread largely by 
the cattle. About 50 per cent, of the cows have tuber- 
culosis, and the people live chiefly on milk. 

Another doctor connected with the hospital tells me 
that Syria had no consumption until about twenty-five 
years ago, when the disease was brought in from the 
United States by natives who had emigrated to our 
country, contracted consumption, and brought it back 
home. The Syrians had no idea what it meant, and it 
rapidly spread. The sanitary conditions of this part of 
the world are bad, the bacteria breed rapidly, and the 
disease is sweeping the country. 

And this brings me to a great work at Juneau within 
a few miles of Beirut. This is a tuberculosis hospital built 
there by the Church of the Covenant at Washington, 
and in charge of Dr. Mary Eddy, who has become famous 
throughout the Near East for her work as a medical 
missionary. Miss Eddy is the daughter of the Rev. 
William W. Eddy, who came to Syria many years ago 
and remained here until his death. Besides being a 
woman of fine education and great medical skill, she is 
an expert on all matters connected with tuberculosis 
and its treatment. 

260 



Cradles in Armenia have no sides, a wide cloth band drawn tight keeping 
the baby from falling out 




American flour sacks serve a double purpose among the Armenians and 
Syrians in time of distress 




Much of the wilderness of the Jordan will be reclaimed by irrigation 
and forestation when the British-Zionist project for developing water 
power along the river is completed 



AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST 



She is the only woman who has ever been granted an 
trade, or certificate of protection, from the Sultan author- 
izing her to practise as a doctor everywhere throughout 
his dominions and directing that all good Turks shall 
give her assistance as she goes on her way. 

Miss Eddy has been working in Syria for years and has 
been fighting the spread of consumption as best she could 
without any hospital facilities for her patients. The 
people have come and camped near her house waiting 
treatment, and the tents of the Bedouins may be seen 
dotting the plains near where the hospital now is. Some 
of the best known men and women of our national cap- 
ital have been interested in the building of this hospital 
and the support of its work. 



261 



CHAPTER XXXI 



AT THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 

THIS morning we shall walk through the remains 
of the famed city of the Ephesians. We shall 
wander over the site of the great Temple of Diana, 
tramp the ground where St. John was living when 
he wrote his gospel, and stand in the marble market- 
place where St. Paul preached. There is a tradition that 
the mother of our Lord was buried here, and that here 
lies also the dust of St. Timothy. 

The Ephesus of the past has been brought to the light 
of the present by the excavations of the Austrians. I 
have told you something of their work in the Holy Land, 
and especially on the site of old Jericho. They have also 
dug up the ruins of other cities in Asia, and here at 
Ephesus have uncovered what remains of the Temple 
of Diana and found a theatre which had seats for thirty 
thousand persons. They have excavated the marble docks 
which led up to the city, and have done much to show 
us what this great commercial centre of two thousand 
years ago must have been in the height of its glory. 

But first let me tell you something of the Ephesus of 
the days of St. Paul. It lay here on the coast of Asia 
Minor, just opposite Greece, in what was almost the 
centre of the then known world. It was the chief Roman 
city of Asia. It had a population of a million or more 
and was famous for its learning, art, and beautiful build- 

262 



THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 

ings. It was far more magnificent than Smyrna, which 
was founded before it, and in which it is said the poet 
Homer was born. 

Ephesus dated back to a thousand years before Christ. 
Some say it was founded by the Amazons, but we know 
that it was largely built up by Greeks from the Ionian 
Islands over the way. It was a great city in the days of 
Croesus, who besieged the town in the year 510, b. a; 
and later it grew so famous that Alexander the Great 
wanted to change its name for his own. 

Among the wonders of Ephesus was its temple to Diana, 
the favourite goddess of the city. People from the cor- 
ners of the earth came to worship her. Her temple was 
considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It 
covered more than two acres, and its mighty roof was 
upheld by one hundred and twenty-seven marble columns 
each as high as a six-story building. The worship of the 
goddess was so famous that there grew up a business in 
making statues of her and manufacturing portable 
shrines which could be carried away by pilgrims. Ath- 
letic games were connected with the worship, and the 
month of May was sacred to her. The temple itself is 
referred to in the Scriptures. In the Acts we read of 
"the great goddess Diana, whom all Asia and the world 
worshipped/' 

Now let us have a look at the site of that temple to-day. 
We have taken a special car at Smyrna and have been 
pulled by a little French locomotive over the railroad to 
the station of Ayasoluk forty-eight miles away across 
country. We have gone through a land of vineyards 
and olives where baggy-trousered peasants are pruning 
the vines and working the fields. They dig about the 

263 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

trees with three-tined hoes and till their crops with 
donkeys and bullocks. The one-handled ploughs are 
about the same as those used in ancient days. We go 
over the plains which must have fed the Ephesians, 
wind our way in and out through the hills, and finally 
come to a little station where we get horses to carry us 
out through the valley to Ephesus. 

The site of the temple lies in a valley. It is not far 
above the level of the sea, which we can see shining in 
the sun not more than five miles away. History says it 
was swampy and that the great structure was erected 
upon piles. This statement is borne out by the present 
conditions of the site. The excavation made in uncover- 
ing the ruins is now filled with water. It is a miniature 
lake filled with broken columns and capitals lying half 
in and half out of the water. We stand on the banks 
beside fluted columns of snow-white marble, and see 
broken marble everywhere near. That man who ploughs 
on the southern ridge of the sand turns up marble bits 
at every step of his bullocks, and the girls behind him, 
who are planting, uncover stones from the temple at 
almost every stroke of their hoes. 

As we look, we see no sign of the activity which pre- 
vailed here two thousand years ago. Birds fly across the 
lake and sing in the trees bending over it. A stork sits 
sleepily on a marble rock in its midst and a frog croaks 
out a welcome. A red cow is grazing there on the edge 
of the water, and at my right a hog is rooting in the 
debris. 

Let us get on our horses and ride on down the valley to 
visit the theatre which once held the actors of the chief 
playhouse of Asia. Think of a theatre seating thirty 

264 



THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 



thousand. It is only in recent years that we have built 
in the United States amphitheatres large enough to seat 
as many people as used to watch the performances here 
more than two thousand years ago. This great open-air 
structure was built largely of marble and altogether of 
stone. The entrance to the stage was through tunnels, 
and the stage was upheld by marble columns. The 
seats, which were made of common stone covered with 
marble, ran around the stage or rather the pit in the 
shape of a half moon, rising high up the hills at the back. 
They were in three stories and contained sixty-six 
rows. 

I measured the outline of the stage. It was about 
eighteen feet wide and six or seven feet high. There are 
long underground passages leading to it, and there were 
eight dressing rooms on two floors at the sides of the 
stage. Walking through the pit, now filled with broken 
marble columns and blocks of marble beautifully carved, 
I climbed down now and then and tried to imagine the 
audience and the acting going on upon the marble stage 
far below. 

Leaving the theatre, I strolled about through the wide 
streets of marble, which have been partially uncovered, 
and made photographs of bits of the ruins. There is 
enough of this fine stone here to build a structure equal 
to our national Capitol at Washington. This is mixed 
with mosaic and the broken statues of the palaces of the 
past. There are pieces of friezes, columns, and capitals 
lying out in the open; there are torsos of statues the 
heads and feet of which have been broken off and carried 
away; and also many exquisite carvings which would be 
treasures to any museum. Here lies a piece of marble 

265 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



drapery, the remnants of the garment of a goddess; 
there the broken-up limb of an athlete, and farther on a 
beautiful bit from the front of the temple. 

Among the ruins are the remains of stores, houses, 
and markets. I climbed over marble blocks along the 
street which led to the ship canal, and stood among 
broken columns in what was once the stock exchange and 
wool market. In one place is an artificial terrace where 
stood the great gymnasium, and in another is a market- 
place two hundred feet long, surrounded by a portico, 
back of which were the stalls of the marketmen. In the 
mosaic floors of these stalls thirteen different kinds of 
marbles were used, and marbles of various colours were 
employed throughout the structure. 

To-day the peasants are working all over these ruins. 
Here they are planting grain, and there, cleaning the 
fields, is a gang of a dozen girls working under a turbaned 
man in baggy trousers. Here women are digging; farther 
on a man drives a camel harnessed to a one-handled plough. 
The only town near Ephesus is Ayasoluk, which has but 
a few hundred inhabitants. It has, perhaps, a dozen 
small stores, a railroad station, and a hotel. While at 
the station I saw a white, fat lamb awaiting shipment. 
It was tied to the platform, and a card fastened to one 
horn bore the name of the commission merchant in Smyrna 
to whom it was consigned. 

Just opposite the hotel are seven tall columns which 
once supported the great aqueduct which supplied Ephe- 
sus with water. Each of these has now a stork's nest 
on its top, and the great birds may be seen any day 
standing there. I am told that they come here only for 
the winter, and that they leave every spring for Holland, 

266 



THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 



or perhaps for some other far-away part of the world, 
every one of them carrying a baby. 

Before coming to Ephesus I spent a day in Smyrna, 
whither I shall return to go on to Constantinople and 
Greece. Smyrna is the largest city in Asia Minor, and 
has about the same position in the modern world that 
Ephesus once had. The chief port of this part of the 
Levant, it does a big business in shipping wool, wine, 
grapes, olives, and figs. It has a foreign trade of about 
fifty million dollars a year, and steamers from all parts 
of the Mediterranean come to its docks. 

The city lies at one end of the Gulf of Smyrna, which 
is thirty-four miles long and surrounded by lofty silver- 
gray mountains some of them a mile high. Its harbour 
is excellent, and the town has many modern buildings. 
Because of its importance in the trade of Asia Minor, 
Smyrna is a centre of political and commercial interests and 
the scene of fierce competition among the various nationali- 
ties. Among its people there are more Greeks than Turks. 

While travelling in Syria I saw many openings for 
American goods. The farming there is after the methods 
of centuries ago, and our ploughs, reapers, and other agri- 
cultural machines might be sold. I understand that the 
more progressive of the native landlords are ready to 
buy. One man, who owns more than a thousand acres 
of rich grainland on the high plateau between the two 
ranges of the Lebanon Mountains, has offered 75 per cent, 
of the profits to any American company that will culti- 
vate it for two or three years, and will bring in American 
machinery. The landlord also agrees, upon the ter- 
mination of the lease, to pay for the machinery at the 
regular price. 

267 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

Some of the Syrian farmers are now using American 
threshers and reapers, and some are bringing in American 
ploughs. The first thresher imported was upon the advice 
of our consul general at Beirut. He is a Dakota man, 
who understands the farming conditions in the North- 
west. He tells me that the possibilities of raising grain 
in this part of the world are remarkable, and that dry 
farming might be practised in many localities which now 
go to waste. He thinks that old Mesopotamia can be 
reclaimed by irrigation and a new Egypt created there. 
He says that as political conditions improve there will 
be many opportunities for commerce and industry, and 
that American capital should take advantage of the 
situation. 

Syria and Asia Minor are now raising a great deal of 
silk, which is sent to France and shipped from there to 
the United States. The American residents tell me that 
there is no reason why we should not buy this raw silk 
direct, thus saving the Frenchman's profits and the double 
transportation charges. I saw mulberry orchards every- 
where during my travels in Syria. The plains about 
Beirut are covered with them, and they are to be found 
on both sides of the Lebanon Mountains. When the trees 
have grown to the height of a man's head, they are cut 
back. Green leaves from the new sprouts furnish food 
for millions of silkworms. In coming from Damascus 
I saw women and children picking the leaves to feed to 
the worms, carrying them to sheds erected for the pur- 
pose. Raising the silkworms is largely in the hands of 
the women, who take care of the trees and sell the cocoons. 
From the Lebanon mountain regions every year men, spe- 
cially appointed, go to France to get the silkworm eggs. 

268 



The first steel bridge across the River Jordan was named in honour of 
General Allenby. Under the British regime motor launches ply along this 
most sacred stream in the world 




Jerusalem now has a speed law, and its road signs are printed in 
the three official languages — English, Hebrew, and Arabic — and French 
besides 



THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS 



For some reason those laid in the Syrian mountains do 
not produce well. 

"He who plants an olive tree lays up riches for his 
children's children/' This saying expresses a current 
belief throughout the Levant. Olives are the money 
crop of a great part of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. 
Many of the trees are hundreds of years old, and some 
of them were planted before Columbus discovered Amer- 
ica. I am told of an orchard near Tripoli, in Syria, which 
the deeds show was established about five hundred years 
ago, and the trees of which are still bearing. All the way 
from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee I saw olive trees 
that looked old enough to have been planted by Jacob. 
Some of gigantic size were hollow and had been filled 
with stones to aid in their support. 

Many of the colonists of the Holy Land have set out 
new orchards, and the Americans who live at Haifa have 
trees bearing fruit every year. I am told that the crop 
is very profitable, and that under reduced taxation many 
more trees will be planted. The fruit is raised for the 
oil. A ton of olives yields about seventy gallons of oil. 
Asia Minor already leads the world in its production 
of olive oil, producing about two or three hundred 
thousand more barrels per annum than either Spain 
or Italy. 

Another important crop of the region about Smyrna is 
the fig, which grows better here than in almost any other 
part of the globe. More than three hundred thousand 
camel-loads are raised in some years, and they are 
shipped all over the world. The trees begin to bear in 
their sixth year, and are at their best ten years after 
planting. The figs ripen about the first of August, and 

269 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

when fully matured fall to the ground. They are dried 
in the sun, then packed in bags for the market. 

A great many of these figs go to America, where you 
will find them in all the fruit and grocery stores. Our 
part of the crop is carefully packed, there being several 
American firms here which do nothing else. The figs 
are first sorted according to the thickness of the skin and 
size of the fruit. The poorest are thrown away or used 
for distilling purposes, and the best are put up for ex- 
port in boxes and jars. The price here varies from two 
to eight cents a pound, the very finest of the figs bringing 
the latter figure. 

A great deal of the packing is done in the city of 
Smyrna to which the fruit is brought in from all parts 
of the country. Some of it comes on the railways, on 
cars especially built for the traffic, and some is carried 
on camels. As it is important that the fruit be not 
bruised, that carried in the cars is laid upon shelves 
built one above the other, so that there is no danger of 
the figs being crushed or bruised. 



270 



CHAPTER XXXII 



ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 

/RMENIA is the Job among peoples. Her frightful 
i sufferings seem to have no end. A little Chris- 
% tian island in a vast sea of Mohammedanism, 
• she has been swept by one great tidal wave of 
persecution after another. Before the eyes of the modern 
world, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even, 
a whole people has been robbed, exiled, and murdered, 
while the great nations have looked on apparently help- 
less to bring to a permanent end the horrible atrocities 
committed by the " unspeakable Turk." 

Millions of dollars have been spent in the past for the 
aid of Armenia, millions more will be required before she 
is freed from famine and persecution. Vast sums have 
been donated by Americans through their churches and 
missionary societies, the Red Cross, and other national 
and international organizations to help these people in 
their misery. But lasting relief cannot come until Ar- 
menia is enabled to set up a nation of her own once more, 
or is brought under the protection of a strong Christian 
power. 

What the Armenians have done under oppression shows 
that they have great possibilities as a race. They are 
sometimes called the Yankees of the Orient. They are 
the brightest, brainiest, and shrewdest of all the people 
of Asia Minor. In business they are sharper than the 

271 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



Jews or even the Greeks. The Turks say, "Twist a 
Yankee and you make a Jew, twist a Jew and you make 
an Armenian. " The Greeks say that "one Greek is 
equal to two Jews, but one Armenian is equal to two 
Greeks." Another current Turkish proverb is, "From 
the Greeks of Athens, from the Jews of Saloniki, and 
from the Armenians everywhere, good Lord deliver 
us!" 

The Armenians are by no means confined to one part 
of the Orient. I have met them everywhere in the East 
and I have found them acting as heads of all kinds of 
businesses. There are many rich Armenians in India. 
Coming from Singapore to Calcutta I travelled with a 
wealthy Armenian jeweller who told me he was on his 
way back from Hong Kong where he had gone to sell 
pearls to the Chinese. I found Armenian conductors 
on the Egyptian railways, and when I went over the 
transcontinental railroad to Paris the guards on the 
train and the men who took up my tickets were Armen- 
ians who spoke English and French. There are hun- 
dreds of thousands of Armenians in Europe. There are 
a large number in Persia, and in different parts of Turkey 
there are said to be about one million. There are a great 
many in Constantinople where they manage most of the 
banking business and own large mercantile establishments. 
When I got money on my letter of credit in Constanti- 
nople it was an Armenian clerk who figured up the 
exchange and an Armenian cashier who handed out the 
money. Whenever there are riots in that city nearly all 
the stores are closed because their Armenian owners fear 
they may be looted by the mob. When I visited the 
Turkish government departments I found that, though 

272 



ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 

the chief officers were Turks, the clerks were in most 
cases Armenians, and the cleverest man I met in Turkey 
was one of the Sultan's secretaries, a man of Armenian 
birth. There are also Armenian engineers, architects, 
and doctors in Constantinople. The Armenians of Ar- 
menia proper, however, are almost all farmers, most of 
whom have become poverty-stricken through the ex- 
horbitant taxes of the Sultan. 

At Jerusalem I saw a large number of Armenian pil- 
grims who had come from all parts of Asia Minor to 
pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have 
a Patriarch at Jerusalem who leads them in these cele- 
brations. He is a tall, thin man with a long gray beard 
and a face not unlike that of the typical Georgia cracker. 
He usually wears a long gown and has a little skull cap 
on the crown of his head. During the Easter celebration 
he wears a tiara blazing with diamonds and his gown is 
a gorgeous silk robe decorated with diamonds. The Ar- 
menian Christians have doctrines much like those of the 
Greek Church. They have monasteries and churches 
scattered throughout Asia Minor. 

Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt 
Christianity as a state religion. This she did at the 
beginning of the fourth century and twelve years before 
the conversion of the Roman emperor, Constantine. 
Ever since she has been persecuted by a succession of 
enemies and conquerors of other faiths. Almost as soon 
as Christianity had been adopted, the Armenians were 
commanded by the Persians, their overlords at that time, 
to give up their faith and adopt the Persian religion of 
fire-worship. They replied: "No one can move us from 
our belief, neither angels nor men, fire nor sword. Here 

273 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



below we will choose no other God, and in heaven no 
other Lord but Jesus Christ." And they have stuck to 
their declaration through all the horrors and persecutions 
brought upon them by Persians, Saracens, Tartars, 
Mamelukes, and Turks. 

At her height Armenia was a flourishing country with 
a population of some thirty millions. But from the time 
of the great dispersal that resulted from the invasion of 
the Moslem hordes in the seventh century, the Armenians, 
like the Jews, have been decimated, their country has 
been ravaged, and the people have been scattered all 
over Europe and Asia. 

The Armenians assert that their country is the holiest 
land upon earth. It lies in Asia Minor, southeast of the 
Black Sea and between it and Persia. Mount Ararat is 
situated in Armenia, and some of the monasteries claim 
to have pieces of the identical ark in which Noah landed 
upon this mountain. A ravine near by is pointed out as 
the site of Noah's vineyard. The vineyard has a mon- 
astery connected with it, and the monks show a withered 
old vine which they assert is the very one from which 
Noah brewed the wine that made him drunk. He cursed 
it so effectually after he got over his spree that it has 
borne no grapes unto this day. Noah's wife is said to 
be buried on Mount Ararat. The Armenians trace their 
ancestry back to Japheth in one great genealogical tree. 
They also have a tradition that the Garden of Eden was 
located in Armenia, almost in the centre of the region 
where the worst massacres have occurred, but it is now 
one of the barren parts of the country. The Armenians 
believe that the Wise Men of the East, who followed the 
Star of Bethlehem to find the young Christ, came from 

274 



ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 

their country and that the Star first appeared in the heav- 
ens not far from Mount Ararat. 

According to another curious Armenian tradition, when 
Adam was in the Garden of Eden his body was covered 
with nails, like those we have on our fingers and toes. 
These nails overlapped each other like the scales of a 
fish, thus giving him an invulnerable armour, After the 
fall they all dropped off except those from the ends of 
his fingers and toes. They remain to this day to remind 
man of his lost immortality. The Armenians say that 
when God made Adam of clay, he had a little piece left 
over. He threw this upon the ground, and as it fell it 
became gold and formed all the gold of the world. These 
people are devoted to the Bible, and take their religion 
very seriously. They could have made their peace with 
the Turks long, long ago if they had been willing to 
accept Mohammedanism. 

The condition of the women of Armenia is said to be 
terrible. They have no refuge from the Turks, who 
perpetrate all sorts of outrages upon them. In some of 
the Armenian cities during one of the massacres the girls 
were collected into the churches and kept there for days 
at the pleasure of the soldiers before they were murdered. 
One statement described how sixty young brides were 
so treated and how the blood ran out under the church 
doors at the time of their massacre. 

These Armenian women are among the most attractive 
of the Near East. I have seen a number of them during 
my trip through Asia Minor. They have large, dark, 
luminous eyes with long eyelashes, and rich, creamy 
complexions. Many of them have rosy cheeks and lus- 
cious red lips. They are tall and straight, but become 

275 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

fat soon after marriage. Not a few of them are married 
to Turks. These women have a dress of their own. 
They wear red fez caps with long tassels much like some 
of the country girls of Greece. The richer ladies wear 
loose jackets lined with fur, and long plain skirts of silk 
or fine wool. In the province of Van, where many atroc- 
ities have been committed, the girls wear under their 
skirts trousers which are tied at the ankles. Some have 
long, sleeveless jackets, or cloaks, reaching almost to the 
feet and open at the sides up to the waists, and others 
wear gorgeous headdresses, covering the front of their 
caps with gold coins, which hang down over their fore- 
heads. Like the Jewesses, these girls often wear their 
whole dowries on their persons, and in massacres like 
those which have so often occurred rings are torn from 
the ears, arms are cut off for bracelets, and many a woman 
is killed for her jewellery. The poorer women are hard 
workers. Nearly every household has some kind of home 
industry whereby it adds to its income. Some of the 
finest embroideries we get from Turkey are made by these 
clever Armenian women, the best of the work being done 
by hand in hovels. 

The houses in which the Armenians live are different 
in different countries. In many of the cities of Turkey 
there is an Armenian quarter, and the older Armenian 
houses of Smyrna are built like forts. They have no 
windows facing the street, and only of late years, when 
the people have considered themselves safe from religious 
riots, have they built houses more like the Turks. In 
Armenia itself the poorer classes have homes which 
would be considered hardly fit for cows in America. 
The cow, in fact, lives with the family. The houses 

276 



ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 

are all of one story, and it is not uncommon to 
build a house against the side of a hill in order to save 
the making of a back wall. The roofs are flat, and are 
often covered with earth upon which grass and flowers 
grow, and upon which the sheep are sometimes pastured. 
The floors are usually sunken below the level of the road- 
way, and the ordinary window is about the size of a port- 
hole. You go down steps to enter the house, where you 
find a cow stable on one side and the kitchen and living 
quarters of the family on the other. 

All the living arrangements are of the simplest and 
cheapest description. Each room has a stone fireplace 
where the cooking is done with cow dung mixed with 
straw. There are no tables and very few chairs. The 
animal heat of the cattle aids the fire in keeping the fam- 
ily warm. The houses of the better class are more com- 
fortable, and in the big Turkish cities some of the rich 
Armenians have beautiful homes. The Armenian women 
are good housekeepers and much more cleanly than the 
Turks. Even their hovels are kept clean. 

They have a better home life than the Turks. A man 
can have but one wife, but the families of several gene- 
rations often live in one house. If the daughter-in-law 
lives with them, she is, to a large extent, the servant of 
her husband's family. She has to obey her father-in- 
law, and during the first days of her married life is not 
allowed to speak to her husband's parents or any of the 
family who are older than herself until her father-in-law 
gives her permission. Up to this time she wears a red 
veil, as a badge of her subjection, which is often kept on 
until her first baby is born. 

Armenian girls are married very young. Eleven or 

277 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

twelve is considered quite old enough, and women still 
young often have sons twenty years old. Marriages are 
arranged by parents or by go-betweens. The usual wed- 
ding day is Monday, and on the Friday before the mar- 
riage the bride is taken to the bath with great ceremony. 
On Saturday she gives a big feast to her girl friends. On 
Sunday there is a feast for the boys, and on Monday the 
wedding takes place. It usually occurs at the church, 
where the priest blesses the ring and makes prayers over 
the wedding garments. The numerous other ceremonies 
make the wedding last from three to eight days. Shortly 
after her return from the church the children present rush 
to pull off the bride's stockings, in which have been hidden 
some coins for the occasion. Another curious custom is 
to place a baby boy on the knee of the bride, as she sits 
beside the groom on a divan, with the wish that she may 
become a happy mother. 

While one reason for the hatred of the Armenians 
is envy of their shrewdness and their wealth, the chief 
cause of the Turkish outrages is religious fanaticism. 
The better classes of the Turks and the more intelligent 
of the Mohammedans would probably stop them if they 
could. Many of the high officials are afraid of the reli- 
gious zeal of the people. They realize that if the common 
people get the idea that they are false to their religion, 
they are almost sure of assassination. The Imams and 
the Sheiks, or, in other words, the Moslem priests, are, to 
a large extent, the rulers of Turkey. They are in most 
cases ignorant and intolerant. 

Among the Mohammedan fanatics there are a large 
number known as dervishes, who roam about from place 
to place stirring up trouble. They are walking delegates, 

278 



ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING 

as it were, for the killing of Christians. They stimulate 
the religious zeal of the people and make violent speeches 
against unbelievers. They fast much and they have 
strange forms of worship. One class, known as the 
whirling dervishes, may be seen in Constantinople any 
Friday going through their devotions. They dress in 
long white robes fastened at the waists with black belts, 
and wear high sugar-loaf hats. They sing the Koran as 
they whirl about in the mosques. As they go on the chief 
priest makes prayers and they whirl faster and faster, 
until at last their long skirts stand out like those of a 
ballet dancer. Their faces become crimson, and some 
finally fall to the ground in fits. 

Another class of these fanatics are the howlers, who 
have a great organization in Turkey, and have probably 
been largely concerned in inciting feeling against the 
Armenians. I have visited their mosques, but I despair 
of adequately describing their religious gymnastics. They 
work themselves into a frenzy, jumping and bending, 
and gasping and howling out the name of God. The 
dervishes of the interior parts of Turkey often take 
knives and cut themselves and each other in religious 
ecstasy. They go into fits and foam at the mouth, and 
most of them think that the killing of a Christian is a sure 
passport to heaven. I would say, however, that these 
people are the cranks of Mohammedanism, and that 
they are not a fair sample of the Moslem world. Never- 
theless, they have had no small part in bringing about 
the miseries of Armenia. 



279 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS 

SWITCH on your radiophone and let us listen to- 
gether this evening to a talk from Jerusalem 
| where John Bull sits in the seats of the mighty 
and the voice of the terrible Turk is no more 
heard in the land. The Holy City is quiet. The women 
are sitting, as of old, on the housetops under the stars, 
while across the valley on the Mount of Olives sparks 
from the wireless tower flash out to the corners of our 
modern world. 

If we listen carefully we may hear the familiar chug- 
chug of an American automobile whose driver to-morrow 
will take a party of pilgrims over the road to Bethlehem. 
Or perhaps he will start on the longer trip to the ruins of 
old Jericho and the River Jordan, or even a tour of all 
the Holy Land, most of which can now be reached in a 
motor car. 

As we listen we learn that the High Commissioner, 
who rules in the name of His Britannic Majesty, met 
to-day with his advisory council, representing the people 
of Palestine. From the report of their proceedings we 
learn what is going on in the reborn Promised Land. 
This council has ten members appointed by the Com- 
missioner. Four of them are Moslems, who make up 
four fifths of the population of Palestine, three are Jews, 
identified with the Zionist movement, and three are 

280 



PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS 



Christians. Just as the membership of the advisory 
council is divided among the three groups for whom 
Jerusalem is a holy place and a religious centre, so, too, 
are the positions in the government to-day held by Chris- 
tians, Jews, and Mohammedans. There are three official 
languages — Arabic, English, and Hebrew. 

The government, we are told, is in good condition, 
and the country is self-supporting, paying its way out 
of its revenues. Nevertheless, the taxes with which the 
Turks used to squeeze and harness the people have been 
reduced and some of them have been abolished. At 
the same time, where the Turk and his tax-gatherers, as 
the Arabs say, "never gave us so much as a drink of cold 
water," the new rulers are providing much-needed im- 
provements with the public funds. 

Before the British came the Arabs had a saying that 
the Turk would rule the Holy Land until the Nile flowed 
into Palestine. This ancient prophecy has been almost 
literally fulfilled, for when the British built the military 
railroad from Egypt into Palestine they laid all the way 
beside it a pipe-line carrying water pumped from the Nile. 
A great tank in the hills on the Hebron road, built by 
Pontius Pilate, has been restored, and now holds five 
million gallons of water, which is piped into Jerusalem. 
The streets have been cleaned, the beginnings of a sewerage 
system put in, and the natives have started to learn the 
use of a covered garbage can. Even the mosquitoes, 
descendants of those who bit the Crusaders, have been 
driven out and have gone to the other side of Jordan to 
smite the Bedouins. Plans for the further extension of 
the city beyond the walls have been prepared, and its 
growth will be directed accordingly. 

281 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

A native police force has been recruited to keep order 
in the place of the troops which have been gradually 
reduced in number. All the holy places are still carefully 
protected. The British were able to keep the Mosque 
of Omar under Moslem guard by using soldiers from their 
own Indian troops made up of followers of the Prophet. 

The men of a New Zealand regiment who were Masons 
held a meeting in the secret cavern under the Holy Rock 
in the Mosque said to be the place where King Solomon 
founded their order. There were thirty-two Masons 
from twenty-seven different lodges, who took part in 
this meeting, while an old sheik acted as doorkeeper. 

The differences in religion keep bobbing up in Jeru- 
salem, giving the British and the advisory council some 
ticklish questions to deal with. For example, when the 
military bands started to give concerts in a public square 
in the outer city, they played three afternoons a week — 
Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Grand Mufti, 
head of the Jerusalem Moslems, solemnly protested, 
saying the band played Saturday for the Jewish Sab- 
bath and on Sunday for the Christians, but was slighting 
the Mohammedans, who observed Friday. So now the 
bands play four days a week. 

Another thing the British did gratified the Christians. 
Under Turkish rule the Church of the Nativity at Beth- 
lehem was disfigured by a wall separating the Greek choir 
and chancel from the nave and basilica, which is common 
to Orthodox and Catholic alike. This wall they tore down, 
so that now the whole church is open to view. 

As a result of the war, and the cruelties of the Turks, 
the population of Jerusalem shrank from eighty thousand 
to sixty thousand, while Jaffa was almost depopulated. 

282 



PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS 



With British control, however, the people flocked back 
again, and a rapid increase is expected all through the 
Holy Land. The country itself suffered almost as much 
as the people from the outrages of both the Turks and the 
Germans. Crops were seized to feed the soldiers, while 
hundreds of thousands of olive and other trees were cut 
down to make fuel for locomotives. The Germans 
blasted out the trees with dynamite, destroying the roots 
so that no sprouts could spring up. Whole sections of 
Palestine were stripped bare, and at the same time cat- 
tle and sheep were taken away and killed. In some places 
the people burned nearly everything they had to keep 
the Turks from getting their possessions. 

The British are working on a vast scheme of refores- 
tation in connection with their irrigation plans. They 
are encouraging a project for building a dam in the River 
Jordan, above Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, which will 
furnish power for irrigation pumps and light and energy 
for all Palestine. Great nurseries have been established 
at Gaza, where Samson threw down the temple of the 
Philistines. In one operation, more than one hundred 
thousand timber trees and ninety thousand fruit trees 
were set out. 

The new rulers of the Holy Land hope to restore agri- 
culture, which fell into decay under the Turks, chiefly on 
account of the excessive taxes on the farmers. Local 
meetings of natives have been held throughout the 
country, to find out what the farmers needed most, and 
to put them in touch with sources of supply. There was 
found to be a great shortage of farm implements and 
machines, such as mowers, horse rakes, and other equip- 
ment. To encourage the natives, the sum of two million 

283 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 



five hundred thousand dollars was set aside to be loaned 
by the Anglo- Egyptian Bank of Palestine for improve- 
ments on their lands. Within three years after the war 
Palestine agriculture produced more than two million 
bushels of wheat, one million bushels of barley, one and 
one quarter million bushels of millet, six thousand tons 
of grapes, and one hundred and fifty thousand gallons of 
olive oil. The number of sheep and goats was estimated 
at more than a quarter of a million of each. Figs are 
grown in upper Galilee, but not so many as will be the 
case when shipping facilities are provided. For the 
second year under British control, the import trade of 
Palestine amounted to not quite twenty million dollars, 
most of which was with Great Britain and Egypt. The 
people import foodstuffs such as rice and sugar, and buy 
a great quantity of cotton goods. 

Some think that Palestine may become a second 
Switzerland and grow rich on the visitors to the country. 
For many years both pilgrims and tourists have been 
going to the Holy Land by the thousands, but little has 
ever been done for either their comfort or their conve- 
nience. With the country under good management by 
the British, and modern conditions provided, more people 
will want to make the trip. Many thousands of Pal- 
estinians could undoubtedly be employed at a profit in 
serving the visitors and selling them goods. 

Communications in Palestine have been greatly im- 
proved and extended. Besides the military railway from 
Egypt, General Allenby and the British built more than 
two hundred miles of highways, and these are being added 
to all the time. There are now four hundred and eighty 
miles of railroad track and five hundred and twenty-three 

284 



PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS 



miles of public highways. The cars on the line from 
Egypt to the Holy Land are comfortable, and sleeping 
and eating accommodations are provided. One may ride 
from Cairo to Ludd, and there connect with the Jaffa- 
Jerusalem line, or continue on to Haifa, whence the jour- 
ney may be continued for twelve hours over the French 
railroad to Damascus. Every two weeks aeroplanes 
carry mail from Egypt and Palestine across the desert 
into Mesopotamia, where the British are developing the 
large interests they gained there as a result of the war. 
The Zionists have revived an old plan for a two-hundred- 
and-fifty-mile ship canal through Palestine as a supple- 
ment to the Suez Canal, but it does not seem likely that 
this scheme will be worked out with the British control- 
ling Palestine and the Suez Canal. 

The British plan to extend into Mesopotamia the 
railroad system already connecting Palestine and Egypt, 
so as to link up the countries of three rivers, the Nile, 
the Jordan, and the Euphrates. This will supplement 
the Berlin-to-Bagdad line which the Germans thought 
would give them control over a new eastern empire. 
Another project that is now much talked of is to dig a 
tunnel thirty-seven miles long under the hills to carry 
water from the streams along the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean into the Jordan. The fact that the Jordan is far 
below sea level makes this physically possible, even if 
not economically practicable. Extensive improvements 
are planned for Haifa, which as a port and the terminus 
of the railroads to Damascus and Jerusalem will be an 
important place in the future. The British also expect 
to empty into ships at Haifa the oil they plan to pipe 
across the desert from Mesopotamia. Haifa used to be 

285 



THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA 

great in ancient days, when it was the chief landing place 
of the Crusaders and the transfer point in the early 
trade between Venice and the Far East. It is now pre- 
dicted that its population of twenty thousand will in- 
crease to one hundred thousand within ten years. 

The French have a mandate for Syria, as the British 
have for Palestine, and the boundaries of both regions 
have been redrawn. Damascus is included in the ter- 
ritory under French control. Syria is nominally inde- 
pendent, and the natives have not been altogether satis- 
fied with the way the French have governed their country 
since the Sultan's power was overthrown. 

Very little has been left of the Turkish possessions, as 
Armenia has been declared independent, and the Greeks 
given a footing in Smyrna and the surrounding district. 
Once these regions become adjusted to the new con- 
ditions following the war, it is believed they will enter 
upon a new era of prosperity and rapid development of 
their many rich resources. 



THE END 



286 



SEEING THE WORLD 

WITH 

Frank G. Carpenter 

Choosing a travelling companion is one of life's most try- 
ing moments. The man with whom we feel we can be 
quite happy throughout a journey — whose tastes, interests, 
and viewpoint are like our own — is often hard to find. 

Millions of Americans have found Frank G. Carpenter 
their ideal fellow traveller. Reading Carpenter has meant 
for them seeing the world, and with him they have jour- 
neyed to all parts of the globe. He never bores, preaches, 
or propagandizes, but tells his readers what they want 
to know, shows them what they want to see, and makes 
them feel that they are there. 

In order to extend this opportunity of "Seeing the World 
with Carpenter/' Doubleday, Page & Company have ar- 
ranged to publish CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAVELS, 
the story of his three hundred thousand miles of journeys 
over the globe, of which this book, "The Holy Land and 
Syria" is the first volume. Succeeding volumes to be 
published immediately, include: 

From Tangier to Tripoli, 
Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, 
Tripoli, and the Sahara. 
Alaska, 

Our Northern Wonderland 
The End of the Hemisphere, 
Chile and Argentina. 
287 



SEEING THE WORLD 



From Cairo to Kisumu. 
Egypt, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and 
British East Africa, 
and twenty other volumes, covering the world. 

These books are familiar talks about the countries and 
peoples of the earth, with the author on the spot and the 
reader in his home. Carpenter makes his readers see 
what he sees, and they feel they are on the spot with him. 

This is the only work of its kind. No other single 
author has visited all the countries of the world and writ- 
ten on the spot, in plain and simple language, the story of 
what he has found. CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAV- 
ELS are not the casual record of incidents of the journey, 
but the painstaking study of a trained observer, devoting 
his life to the task of world-wide reporting. Each book 
is complete in itself; together they form the most vivid, 
interesting, and understandable picture of our modern 
world yet published. They are the fruit of more than 
thirty years of unparalleled success in writing for the 
American people through the medium of their greatest 
newspapers. They are a fitting climax to Mr. Carpenter's 
distinguished services to the teaching of geography in our 
public schools, which have used some four million copies 
of the Carpenter Geographical Readers. 

In the present state of the world, a knowledge of its 
countries and peoples is essential to an understanding of 
what is going on, of how all that is happening affects us, and 
why. Carpenter takes his readers to the lands of the news, 
and makes more real the daily flashes by cable and radio. 

A word to your bookseller, or a line to the publishers, will 
enable you to secure each volume of Carpenter's World 
Travels as it appears. 

288 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



A N ENORMOUS number of books on the Holy Land 
i\ have been written, some few of which have be- 
/ % come standard works, in spite of having been 
A. m* written a generation ago. Among these the most 
familiar, perhaps, are Dean Stanley's " Sinai and Pales- 
tine," in many editions, and G. A. Smith's "Historical 
Geography of the Holy Land," thirteenth edition, London, 
1907, and the same author's "Atlas of the Historical Ge- 
ography of the Holy Land," London, 191 5. The following 
brief list is a selection from the most recent publications : 

Baedeker. "Syria and Palestine" Guidebook. London, 191 2. 
Bell, Gertrude. "Syria." London, 1919. 

Bentwich, Norman. "Palestine and the Jews, Past, Present, and 
Future." London, 19 19. 

Copping, Arthur E. "A Journalist in the Holy Land." London, 191 1. 

Gordon, Ben L. "New Judea: Jewish Life in Modern Palestine." 
Philadelphia, 1919. 

Grant, Elihu. "Peasantry of Palestine." New York, 1907. 

Great Britain. "Handbook of Syria" (including Palestine) Pre- 
pared by Naval Intelligence Division, British Admiralty. Lon- 
don, 1 92 1. 

"Syria and Palestine," Historical section British Foreign Office — 
No. 60. London, 1921. 
Hichens, Robert. "The Holy Land" illus. by Jules Guerin. New 
York, 1 9 10. 

Hilprecht, H. V. "Explorations in Bible Lands during the 19th 

Century." Philadelphia, 1903. 
Huntington, Ellsworth. "Palestine and Its Transformation." 

Boston, 191 1. 

289 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Hyamson, A. M. "Palestine: the Rebirth of an Ancient People." 
London, 191 7. 

Jastrow, Morris. "Zionism and the Future of Palestine." New 
York, 191 9. 

Lees, G. Robinson. "Village Life in Palestine." London, 1905. 
Lock, H. O. "The Conquest of Palestine." London, 1920. 
Mudrum, Nadra. "La Syrie de Demain." Paris, 1916. 
Maxwell, Donald. "A Painter in Palestine." London, 192 1. 
y Pirie-Gordon, H. "Guidebook to Northern Palestine and Southern 
Syria." Jerusalem, 1920. 

"Guide Book to Central Syria." Jerusalem, 1920. 
Ruppin, A. "Syrien als Wirthschaftsgebiet" (Also in English). 

Berlin, 191 7. 
"The Jews of To-day." New York, 19 13. 
Samne, G. "La Syrie." Paris, 192 1. 

Sampter, Jessie, Editor. "A Guide to Zionism." New York, 1920. 
Sidebotham, H. "England and Palestine." London, 1919. 
Sokolow, N. "History of Zionism." London and New York, 1919. 
Szold, Henrietta. "Recent Progress in Palestine." New York, 
1920. 

Wilbushewitz, N. "The Industrial Development of Palestine." 
London, 1920 



290 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abraham, sacrificial rock of, 64. 

Agriculture, in the Land of Goshen, 6; 
in Palestine, 159. 

Allenby, General, the successful Cru- 
sader, 1. 

Alouf, Dr. Michel, archaeologist at 

Baalbek, 239. 
American cemetery at Jerusalem 

purchased by trickery by Germans 

who remove bodies, 44, 250. 
American colonies in the Holy Land, 

172. 

American education in the Near East, 
252. 

American Medical Unit in Palestine, 
202. 

American store in Jerusalem, 174. 
American trade, opportunities for, in 

Syria, 267. 
Ananias, house of, at Damascus, 

212. 

Andromeda, the rocks of, 18. 
Anglo-Israelite Colonization Society, 

work of, 1 70, 1 76. 
Ararat, Mount, in Armenia, 274. 
Armenia, the sufferings of, 271. 
Armenian Patriarch at Jerusalem, 273. 
Armenian women, costumes of, 276; 

marriage customs, 277. 
Armenians, as sharp traders, 271. 
Ascension, Chapel of the, 127. 
Asyut, American college at, 252. 
Ayasoluk, railway station for Ephe- 

sus, 263, 266. 

Baal, worship of, 235. 
Baalbek, ruins of the ancient city, 232. 
Babel, Tower of, at Baalbek, 234. 
Bacchus, temple of, at Baalbek, 236. 
Banias, at source of the Jordan, 130. 
Baptisms in the Jordan, 55. 
Bashan, compared with Bible times, 
32. 

Bazaars of Jerusalem, in. 
Beeroth, 155. 

Bees and honey of Palestine, 164. 



Beirut, American college at, 256; 

college has largest publishing house 

in the Orient, 259. 
Beitin, the ancient Bethel, 155. 
Berlin-to-Bagdad scheme, Germany's, 

249. 

Bethany, of to-day, 123. 
Bethel, now called Beitin, 155. 
Bethlehem, visits to, 138. 
Birthplace of Christ, the, 144. 
Bliss, Dr. Howard S., difficulties with 

the literary censorship, 255; handles 

a strike of Moslem students, 257. 
Boaz, Field of, 140, 141. 
Bomb for the Church of the Holy 

Sepulchre, 107. 
Bread bakers of Jerusalem, 1 15. 
Brickmaking at Bubastis, 9. 
Bridge of Jacob's Daughters, 131. 
British government of Palestine and 

Syria, 280. 
British mandate over Palestine, 197. 
Bubastis, city of cat worship, 9. 

Caiaphas, the house of, 44. 
Cain and Abel, Moslem tradition of, 
246. 

Calvary, the site as located by General 
Gordon, 46. 

Camels and their use, 164. 

Cana, village of, 195. 

Candies of Damascus, 218. 

Capernaum, excavations at, 192. 

Carmelite nunnery on Mount of 
Olives, 126. 

Cat worship, at Bubastis, 9. 

Catacombs of Jerusalem, 60. 

Cave dwellers in Jerusalem, 39. 

Cedars of Lebanon, 240. 

Cemeteries, weddings in, 83. 

Censorship of reading matter by Turk- 
ish officials, 255. 

Chapel of the Ascension, 127. 

Chapel of the Manger, 146. 

Children of the Holy Land, 182 

Christ, Tomb of, 90. 



293 



INDEX 



Christians barred from railroads to 

Mohammedan holy cities, 242. 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 48, 88. 
Church of the Lord's Prayer, the, 126. 
Church of the Nativity, 144. 
Costumes of Damascus women, 224. 
Crucifixion, relics of the, 91. 

Damascus, the world's oldest city, 
204; the heart of the Mohammedan 
world, 209; massacres of Christians 
at, in modern times, 209, 217; 
bazaars of, 214; foreign trade, 220; 
manufacture of jewellery, 221. 

Damascus- Beirut railway, travels on, 
246. 

David, Tower of, 36. 

David-Goliath battlefield, 25. 

Day of Judgment, the Mohammedan 

belief, 46. 
Dead Sea, the, 129, 131, 135. 
Dervishes, fanaticism of the, 278. 
Diana, temple of, at Ephesus, 263. 
Divorce, in Damascus, 225. 
Donkeys, their use in the Holy Land, 

164. 

Dorcas, the tomb of, 21. 

Easter Week in Jerusalem, 48, 55, 84. 
Ebal, Mount, 157. 

Eddy, Dr. Mary, work of, as medical 

missionary, 260. 
Education, American, in the Near 

East, 252. 
Elijah, the cave of, 122. 
Elisha, the fountain of, 122. 
Ephesus, excavations at, 262. 
Eucalyptus, introduction of the, 170. 
Evil Eye, belief in the, 78. 
Excavations, at Baalbek, German, 

234; at Ephesus, 262; at Jericho, 

119. 

Farming in Palestine, 159. 

Fat-tailed sheep, 141. 

Fatima, tomb of, at Damascus, 210. 

Field of Boaz, 140, 141. 

Field of Peas, the, 142. 

Field of the Shepherds, the, 142. 

Figs, production of, in Syria, 269. 

Fishermen of the Sea of Galilee, 189. 

Flight into Egypt, the, 10. 

Flowers of Palestine, the, 165. 

Foot washing, the ceremony of, 95. 



Franz Josef, costly gifts of, to the 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 50. 
French-Jewish Society, work of, 171. 
Fuel, scarcity of, 33. 

Gabriel's Spring, Nazareth, 180. 
Gadarenes, land of the, 188. 
Galilee, Sea of, 131, 187. 
Garden of Gethsemane, the, 127. 
German church at Jerusalem, 43, 249, 
250. 

German colonies in Palestine, 248. 
German excavations at Baalbek, 234. 
German hospice at Jerusalem, 249. 
Germany's methods in the Near East, 
249. 

Gerizim, Mount, Samaritan Passover 

sacrifice on, 1 50. 
Gethsemane, Garden of, 46, 127. 
Gezer, excavations at, 27. 
Gifts to the churches, 108. 
Gihon, Pool of, 139. 
Gilead, compared with Bible times, 

32. 

Gomorrah and Sodom, sites of, 137. 

Good Samaritan Inn, the, 125. 

Gordon, General, site of Calvary lo- 
cated by, 46; believed Place of the 
Skull the scene of the Crucifixion, 
154. 

Goshen, in Joseph's time and now, 4; 
a land of gardens, 6. 

Graveyard marriages, superstition re- 
garding, 82. 

Great Mosque, the, at Damascus, 207. 

Greek Church, a great factor in the 
the religious life of the Holy Land, 
53; strength of, 10 1, 109. 

Hadassah Medical Organization, work 

of, in Palestine, 202. 
Hamlin, Rev. Cyrus, organizer of 

Robert College, Constantinople, 

254. 

Hardegg, American hotel keeper at 
Jaffa, 19. 

Hebrew art, revival of, 201. 

Herzl, Dr. Theodore, founder of Zion- 
ist movement, 198. 

Hezekiah, Pool of, 35, 36. 

Holy Family, route of, into Egypt, 10. 

Holy fire, "miracle" of the, 98. 

Holy Land, returned to Christian and 
Jew, 1. 



2Q4 



INDEX 



Holy Sepulchre, Church of the, 48, 88. 
Holy Week, in Jerusalem, 48, 55, 84. 
Huleh, Lake, 131. 

Irrigation, in Mesopotamia, British 
plans for, 248; in the Land of 
Goshen, 6. 

Jacob's Daughters, Bridge of, 131. 
Jacob's Well, 152. 

Jaffa, the city of Jonah, 14; one of the 
world's worst harbours, 16; lumber 
for Solomon's Temple landed at, 
17, 66, 241. 

Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad, the, 26. 

Jaffa to Jerusalem, the journey from, 
32. 

Jehoshaphat, Valley of, 44. 
Jeremiah, Lamentations of, where 

written, 46; chanting of, 76. 
Jericho, excavations at, 1 19; arriving 

at, 123. 

Jerusalem, growth of the city, 37; ma- 
terials used in house construction 
in, 38; the mecca of millions, 40; 
the building of the walls, 45; pil- 
grimage city of the world, 48; Jews 
barred from, 68; mean temperature 
of, 130; increase in population under 
the British, 282. 

Jesus's Spring, in Nazareth, 180. 

Jewellery, manufacture of, in Damas- 
cus, 221. 

Jewels bestowed by pilgrims to Jeru- 
salem, 50. 

Jewish Colonies, development of, 169. 

Jews, coming into their own, 68; 
classes of, in Palestine, 69; dress 
and customs of, 71; superstitions 
of, 78. 

Jonah, story of, 16. 

Jonah's city, Jaffa, 14. 

Jordan River, long and crooked, 30; 
the blessing of the water, 55; bap- 
tisms in, 56; travels along the, 129; 
source of, 130. 

Jordan Valley, the, 129; mean tem- 
perature of, 130. 

Judas's betrayal of Christ, spot of, 128. 

Judea, via the railway, 23. 

Juneau, tuberculosis hospital at, 260. 

Kaiserin Augusta, hospice on Mount 

of Olives in honour of, 249. 
Kedron, gardens of, 44. 



Kedron, Valley of, 1 54. 
Kersting, Father, excavations in Naza- 
reth, 180. 

Lake Huleh, 131. 

Lamentations of Jeremiah, where 
written, 46; chanting of the, 76. 

Lazarus, tomb of, 123. 

Law of Moses, Samaritan parchment 
of the, 1 50. 

Lebanon, cedars of, 240. 

Lebanon Mountains, scantily forested, 
240. 

Livestock in the Land of Goshen, 6. 
Lord's Prayer, the Church of the, 125. 
Lot's wife, the pillar of salt, 137. 
Louse Market, Damascus, 217. 

Machinery, American, needed in 

Syria, 267. 
Magi, Well of the, 141. 
Mandeville, Sir John, first report of 

the cotton plant, 5. 
Manger, Chapel of the, 146. 
Markets of Jerusalem, the, 117. 
Marriage and divorce customs of the 

Holy Land, 226. 
Marriage at early age in Palestine, 

184. 

Marriage customs in Armenia, 277. 

Mary and Martha, house of, at 
Bethany, 124. 

Mary's Well, Nazareth, 180. 

Masons, meeting of, in the Mosque of 
Omar, 282. 

Massacres of Christians in Damascus 
in modern times, 209, 217. 

Mecca, railroad to, 242; Moslem pil- 
grimages to, 209; pilgrimages to, 
a means of distribution of civilized 
ideas, 258. 

Medical missionaries in the Orient, 
259. 

Mesopotamia, British plans for irriga- 
tion in, 248; agricultural possibil- 
ities of, 268. 

"Miracle" of the holy fire, the, 98. 

Mizpah, where Saul was anointed 
king, 25, 154. 

Moab, compared with Bible times, 32. 

Modern innovations in the Holy 
Land, 1. 

Money changers, customs of the, 87, 
in. 

Montefiore colonies at Jerusalem, 171. 



295 



INDEX 



Moriah, Mount, 57. 

Moses, where found, in the Nile bul- 
rushes, 11. 

Moses' Tabernacle, site of, 65. 

Mosque of Omar, water supply for, 
34; on site of Solomon's Temple, 36, 
48; history of, 62; kept under Mos- 
lem guard by the British, 282. 

Mosques and praying carriages on 
Mecca railway, 243. 

Mount Ebal, 157. 

Mount Moriah, 57. 

Mount Nebo, 129, 134. 

Mount of Olives, 30, 125. 

Mount Scopus, 154. 

Naam, the Syrian, house of, at Da- 
mascus, 212. 

Nablus, one of the oldest towns of 
history, 157. 

Nativity, Church of the, 144. 

Nazareth, early home of the Saviour, 
177. 

Nebo, Mount, 129, 134. 
Noah, tomb of, 247. 

Obelisks, American tourists at the, 12. 
Olive oil, made in primitive manner, 
116. 

Olives, production of, in Syria, 269. 

Omar, Mosque of, water supply for, 
34; on site of Solomon's Temple, 36, 
48; its history, 62; kept under Mos- 
lem guard by the British, 282. 

Oman, the Jebusite, threshing-floor of, 
59, 64. 

Palestine, returned to Christian and 
Jew, 1 ; first view of its shores, 1 5 ; 
comparative size, 30; character of 
the country, 31; farming in, 159; 
under the British, 280. 

Palestine Exploration Fund excava- 
tions at Gezer, 27. 

Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, 92. 

Patriarch of Jerusalem, a talk with 
the, 10 1. 

Peas, the Field of, 142. 

Pilgrimages to the Holy City, 14, 40, 
48, 49, 53- 

Pithom, treasure city of Pharaoh, 8. 

Place of the Skull, the, 46, 154. 

Pontius Pilate, house of, 93. 

Pool of Gihon, 139. 

Pool of Hezekiah, 35, 36. 



Pool of Siloam, 35, 54. 
Pools of Solomon, now a poor water 
supply, 34. 

Quarrels between the sects, 106. 

Rachel, Tomb of, 142. 
Railroads in the Holy Land, 242. 
Rainfall, scanty proportion of, 34. 
Rameses, treasure city of Pharaoh, 8. 
Religions, strength of the different, 
1 10. 

Robert College, Constantinople, in- 
fluence of, 253. 

Roses, Valley of, 140. 

Rothschild, Baron Edward, founds 
Jewish colonies in Palestine, 171, 
174, 176. 

Ruins, the world's mighty, 233. 

Russian hospice, the, 53. 

Russians, chief pilgrims to the Holy 
Land, 53. 

Saladin, tomb of, at Damascus, 211. 

Samaritans, among the, 149. 

Samson's fight with the Philistines, 
place of, 26. 

Samuel, Tomb of, 154. 

St. Helena, locates place of the Cruci- 
fixion, 51. 

St. Stephen, place of the stoning of, 
45- 

St. Paul, tracing footsteps of, 211; 

place of his escape over wall of 

Damascus, 213. 
St. Peter and his dream, 20. 
Schools of Nazareth, the, 184. 
Scopus, Mount, 154. 
Sea of Galilee, 131, 187. 
Seilum, the ancient Shiloh, 155. 
Sepulchre of Christ, the, 91. 
Seth, tomb of, 247. 

Shechem, one of the oldest towns of 

history, 157. 
Sheep, the fat-tailed variety, 141, 160. 
Shepherds, Field of the, 142. 
Shiloh, now called Seilum, 155. 
Shops of Jerusalem, smallness of the, 

113. 

Silk production in Syria, 268. 
Siloam, Pool of, 35, 44. 
Simon the Tanner, house of, 20. 
Skull, Place of the, 154. 
Smyrna, largest city in Asia Minor, 
267. 



296 



INDEX 



Sodom and Gomorrah, sites of, 137. 

Solomon, Pools of, now a poor water 
supply, 34. 

Solomon's Temple, lumber for, landed 
at Jaffa, 17, 66, 241; Mosque of 
Omar on site of, 36, 48; site of, 45; 
holiest spot on the globe, 57; di- 
mensions of, 67. 

Souvenirs, the purchase of, 222. 

Spaffordites, colony of the, in Pales- 
tine, 173. 

Sphinx, legend of the Holy Family at 
the, 11. 

Stone of Unction, the, 49, 89. 

Storekeepers of Jerusalem, in. 

Street called Straight, the, at Damas- 
cus, 212; shopping in, 214. 

Suk Wadi Baroda, on Damascus- 
Beirut railway, 246. 

Superstitions of the Jews, 78. 

Syria under the British, 280. 

Tabernacle of Moses, site of, 65. 

Taxes and their collection in Pales- 
tine, 167. 

Temples of Baalbek, 233. 

Tiberias on Sea of Galilee, 193. 

Tomb of Christ, the, 90; of Dorcas, 21; 
Fatima, 210; of Lazarus, 123; of 
Noah, 247; of Rachel, 142; of Sala- 
din, 211; of Samuel, 154, of Seth, 
247. 

Tower of Babel, at Baalbek, 234. 
Tower of David, the, 36. 
Tuberculosis among the Bedouin 
tribes, 260. 



Unction, Stone of, 49, 89. 

United Presbyterian Church, educa- 
tional institutions of, in Nile Valley, 
252. 

Valley of Roses, 140. 
Veiled women of Damascus, the, 223. 
Virgin Mary, jewel-covered image of, 
at Jerusalem, 50. 

Washing the feet, ceremony of, 95. 

Watch towers of Jerusalem, the, 43. 

W'ater supply, by scanty wells and 
cisterns, 34. 

Weddings, in cemeteries, 82. 

W r ell of the Magi, 141. 

Wilhelm II, breach in wall of Jerusa- 
lem in honour of, 139; places golden 
wreath on tomb of Saladin, 2 1 1 ; his 
trip through the Holy Land, 233, 
250. 

Women, veiled, of Damascus, 223. 
Women's rights in the Holy Land, 230. 

Zagazig, a famous cotton port, 4. 
Zammarin, Jewish colony at, 174. 
Zangwill, Israel, talk with on Zionist 

movement, 198. 
Zion, Mount, view from, 37; on the 

slope of, 43. 
Zionist colonies in Palestine, 170. 
Zionist movement, the, 196. 
Zimpel, originator of Jaffa- Jerusalem 

railroad idea, 26. 
Zorah, birthplace of Samson, 27. 



297 



A 



